The Minister of Health, Mónica García, and the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, have requested to appear before the Congress of Deputies on August 27 and 28, respectively, with the aim of informing about the situation in Ceuta after the migration crisis registered on July 30. This initiative has also been joined by the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego.
Sources from the Health and Inclusion departments have indicated that this Monday the request to attend the corresponding committees has been formalized in the Lower House. Thus, García will intervene before the Health Committee, while Saiz will do so in the Committee on Labor, Social Economy, Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
For her part, the person in charge of Youth and Childhood has also submitted the request to appear and provide explanations "in order to guarantee the care and protection of the rights of unaccompanied children and adolescents who are in the Autonomous City of Ceuta," according to sources from her Ministry, although the date of her intervention has not yet been set.
Response to the demand from the PP
These appearances are announced a few hours after the Popular Party demanded the presence of the three ministers in Congress to detail the measures adopted and justify their absence in the last 16 days.
The 'popular' have requested to convene the Permanent Deputation of Congress —the body that remains operational outside of ordinary session periods— so that García, Saiz, and Rego inform about the management of the situation in Ceuta linked to their respective departments.
The PP demands explanations that range from the "collapse" of the health system that, in their opinion, the autonomous city suffers, to the consequences of decisions regarding migration —among them, the extraordinary regularization— as well as the care for underage migrants who remain in Spanish territory.
This Monday, Mónica García has maintained that the central Executive has indeed been present in Ceuta during the migration crisis, thus responding to the president of the autonomous city, Juan Vivas, who had criticized the "passivity" of the Government and demanded "to analyze and investigate" the possible responsibilities of Morocco in the origin of the crisis.
The Minister of Health already rejected this Sunday that Ceuta was in a situation of "health collapse," although she acknowledged the existence of "especially tense" areas, and placed the number of migrants attended in the autonomous city since the beginning of the migratory episode at 5,800.
More appearances of ministers due to the migratory crisis
These requests are added to those already registered last Friday by the Government in Congress for, in an extraordinary period and at their own request, Ministers Fernando Grande-Marlaska, José Manuel Albares, Margarita Robles, and Félix Bolaños to appear in order to explain the migratory crisis in which more than 72,000 irregular migrants from Morocco entered Spain.
The Minister of Defense is scheduled to appear on Tuesday, August 25; the Minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Cortes will appear on Thursday, 27, the same day as the Minister of Health; and the heads of Interior and Foreign Affairs will do so on Friday, 28, coinciding with the intervention of Elma Saiz, each in the parliamentary committee that corresponds to them.