The Autonomous City of Ceuta has decided to suspend in the afternoon of this Thursday the cleaning and disinfection operation scheduled at Trampolín beach, after around 500 migrants have returned to the settlement a few hours after the transfer of more than 1,200 people who were staying in the area to two new reception resources set up in the city was completed.
According to the regional Administration, the work promoted by the Ministry of Environment, Urban Services, and Housing, which had started mid-morning, has been temporarily halted after the return of dozens of people to the enclave, apparently to recover or locate personal belongings.
Return to the settlement with the intention of staying
Sources present at the site have explained to Europa Press that some of the migrants have not only returned to collect items, but some have come back with blankets and other belongings with the intention of settling again on the beach, where in recent weeks one of the largest improvised camps that emerged after the massive entry at the end of July had consolidated.
The Ceuta Executive has indicated that the halt in operations is due to safety criteria. "This circumstance has forced the work to be halted for safety reasons, in order to guarantee the integrity of the workers participating in the operation," it stated in an official statement.
The local Administration has added that, at the moment the migrants returned to the sandy area, there was no presence of National Police or Civil Guard forces, so the resumption of the operation is subject to the restoration of the necessary conditions to work with the due guarantees.
Given the high number of people who have returned to the settlement, which the City estimates at around five hundred, the cleaning operation has ultimately been suspended without a date for its reactivation.
Prior transfer to new reception resources
The cleaning intervention was planned after the voluntary eviction carried out in the morning, when more than 1,200 migrants were taken from the beach to two new temporary reception spaces set up by the administrations with the aim of alleviating the pressure in the Trampolín settlement.
The displacement took place under the supervision of the National Police and with the support of the Civil Guard, who escorted the migrants during the walk to the designated facilities.
The people of sub-Saharan origin were transferred to the resource set up in Loma Margarita, while the Maghreb migrants headed to the facilities adapted in Loma Colmenar, near the Tarajal border and in the vicinity of the University Hospital of Ceuta.
The initial forecast of the City was to take advantage of the emptying of the settlement to carry out a comprehensive cleaning of the beach, with the removal of waste, collection of abandoned belongings, and subsequent disinfection tasks. However, the return of hundreds of migrants has forced, for now, to postpone the complete recovery of this stretch of the Ceuta coastline.