The president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, has conveyed this Thursday to King Felipe VI that the autonomous city remains "far from normality" after the migratory crisis of last week and has warned of the "vulnerability" that the Spanish enclave faces in the face of such episodes.
Vivas has held an audience with the monarch at the Palacio de Marivent, in Palma de Mallorca, just a few days after the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta, a meeting in which he has presented firsthand the situation the city is going through and the needs that, in his opinion, remain pending to recover normality.
"The King is committed to visiting Ceuta"
After the meeting, the Ceuta president has assured that Felipe VI maintains his commitment to visit the autonomous city, although he has avoided specifying a date for that trip.
Vivas has explained that during the conversation he conveyed to the head of State that the situation remains one of "emergency" and that Ceuta continues to face significant difficulties arising from the migratory crisis, which is why he considers it essential to strengthen border protection and adopt structural solutions.
The meeting comes after last weekend the King publicly expressed his "great concern and indignation" over the events recorded in Ceuta and Melilla and defended that the State must adopt the necessary measures to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
Warning about the vulnerability of Ceuta
During his statements, Vivas has insisted that the events experienced in recent days highlight the special vulnerability of Ceuta due to its status as an external border of Spain and the European Union.
In this regard, he has reiterated the need to strengthen protection mechanisms and to promote coordinated responses both from the Government of Spain and from European institutions to prevent episodes like the one experienced last week from recurring.
Meeting with Marga Prohens
Taking advantage of his stay in Palma, Vivas has also met with the president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, to whom he has conveyed the evolution of the crisis and the difficulties that the autonomous city continues to face.
According to the Balearic Government, the Ceuta president defended the need to promote structural solutions and strengthen the protection mechanisms of the border, while Prohens expressed his concern about a situation that he described as "extraordinary complexity".
The meeting also coincided with the recent shipwrecks recorded in waters near the Balearic Islands, which have left nearly thirty people missing, a context in which both leaders addressed the migratory pressure affecting different points of the southern Spanish border.