The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, will present this Thursday in an extraordinary session of the Joint Commission (Congress-Senate) of National Security of Congress to explain his work as the person in charge of the "single command" in the management of the migratory crisis in Ceuta, with the aim of reinforcing coordination among the various authorities and administrations involved.
The decision of the Executive was adopted this Tuesday after the extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council, chaired by Pedro Sánchez, convened after the entry at the end of July of more than 80,000 migrants from Morocco to the autonomous city.
This new functional authority will have the support of a collegiate body in which the Government of Ceuta will be represented, headed by its president, Juan Jesús Vivas; the Delegation of the Government; the National Intelligence Center (CNI); the Department of National Security and eleven ministries with competencies in crisis management. The Executive maintains that the situation has entered a "new phase" that requires intensifying coordination among administrations.
In this new scenario, the Government has prioritized the "return and repatriation" of the migrants who remain in Spain, both adults and minors, ensuring respect for the legal framework and human rights. Torres pointed out this Tuesday that between 90% and 95% of the more than 70,000 people who entered Ceuta returned to Morocco within the first 24 or 48 hours.
List of resources and facilities
Likewise, the minister will detail in Congress the material resources and facilities available to address the crisis, as outlined in the royal decree of Declaration of Resources to be used in the situation of interest for national security in the city of Ceuta, in application of Law 36/2015 on National Security.
After the meeting held this Tuesday in Ceuta between Torres and Vivas, both agreed that the spaces made available to accommodate migrants will be decided "by consensus" and that the planned list constitutes a "modifiable and flexible maximum proposal."
Among the infrastructures contemplated are sports complexes and other venues that, according to sources from the Ministry of Territorial Policy, would only be used "in case of an extreme situation," a scenario they do not consider likely, although it remains an option in case of possible contingencies. Furthermore, the list may be updated through weekly reviews.
Torres chaired the first meeting of the Situation Committee in charge of managing the crisis on Wednesday, in which Vivas, representatives from the ministries integrated into the collegiate body, and the Government Delegation participated. The minister emphasized that the purpose of this new phase is to recover the "normality" that existed in Ceuta before the massive influx of migrants as soon as possible, and he requested cooperation from all the administrations involved.
Bolaños and the dismissal of the official who leaked migrant data
In that same mixed commission, but before Torres's intervention, the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, will appear to report on the personnel reinforcements sent to Ceuta to process the files, mainly fiscal, public defenders, and forensic experts in charge of identifying the bodies of deceased migrants.
Additionally, the PP has requested the appearance of the director of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, Diego Rubio, to explain the dismissal of the official from the Department of National Security who disseminated the first data on the illegal entry of migrants during the crisis in Ceuta last Thursday.
In the first 24 hours after the massive entry of migrants, the Government avoided providing official figures on how many people had entered the national territory irregularly, but the National Security website got ahead and published a first estimate of 49,000 people arriving in Ceuta in a single day on Friday morning.
That message from the DSN website, directed by General Loreto Gutiérrez Hurtado and dependent on the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, was the first data released by the Executive and placed the magnitude of the crisis at an unprecedented level, far exceeding that of May 2021, when about 10,000 people entered Ceuta in approximately 48 hours.
Subsequently, the publication was removed, and around 2 p.m. that Friday, the Government disseminated its first official balance, which spoke of 50,000 people, a figure similar to that advanced on the National Security website.
The Executive admitted that the official responsible for the website of the Department of Homeland Security had been dismissed for loss of trust, arguing that she disseminated "unverified" information about a particularly sensitive issue.
It is expected that the PP will take advantage of Bolaños' presence to insist on this matter, as they suspect that the official was "dismissed for doing her job well" and maintain that the Government "is afraid" of "the truth".