The Government has initiated this Sunday the dismantling of one of the temporary shelters for migrants set up in the port of Ceuta. The National Police has deployed from first thing in the morning an operation at the Poniente dock that has ended with the eviction of the 50 tents of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
Hundreds of people who remained in these facilities have been transferred to the Temporary Care Center for Foreigners (CATE) in El Tarajal, where their administrative situation is checked before determining their destination. According to sources from the Government cited by elDiario.es, dozens of them subsequently returned to Morocco.
The action is part of the Executive’s plan to progressively remove the extraordinary reception devices enabled following the mass entries of migrant people recorded in Ceuta at the end of July.
Doubts about the voluntary nature of the returns
One of the most controversial aspects of the operation is the way in which some of the departures to Morocco have taken place. The Ministry of the Interior maintains that the formula of voluntary return has been applied. However, elDiario.es has observed that some migrants, after going through the police facilities of the CATE, have been accompanied by National Police officers holding them by the arm to a door located in the security area of the border fence, at an unauthorized crossing.
The outlet also reports testimonies from people housed in the camp who denounce that some migrants have been sent to Morocco. A young person identified as Annas has stated that the youngest and the oldest were transferred outside the facilities.
For the moment, neither Interior nor the Delegation of the Government has provided official figures on the number of people housed in the camp, how many have returned to Morocco, or how many still had a resolution pending on their request for international protection.
The Government expects to close other temporary devices
The removal of the tents from the port forms part of a broader process announced this week by the minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres. The Executive intends to regroup migrant people in the resources that continue to be available and close those devices with lower occupancy.
According to the data provided by the Government, the temporary camps set up in Ceuta have about 7,000 places, of which around 5,800 were occupied. Torres also estimated at more than 15,000 the people who had returned to their countries since the start of the crisis.
The Government Delegation has confirmed that this Sunday’s operation has made it possible to completely evacuate the 50 tents at the Muelle de Poniente, where cleaning and removal of the facilities will be carried out. It has also stated that transfers will continue to other temporary facilities in order to optimize the available places.
The closure of this camp marks the first step in the gradual withdrawal of the extraordinary resources enabled during the migration crisis of the summer, although there are still people housed in other reception spaces in the city.