More than 2,000 people have gathered this Wednesday in front of the Government Delegation in Ceuta to protest against the management of the migration crisis and to denounce what they consider the "inaction" of the central Executive. The mobilization, the second in two days, coincided with the first meeting of the unified command responsible for coordinating the response to the situation facing the city.
The protest began at 6:00 PM in front of the Military Hospital, in the O'Donnell neighborhood, and has been gaining participants during its route. The demonstrators later moved towards Puertas del Campo and from there continued to the Plaza de los Reyes, where the Government Delegation is located.
The attendees carried flags of Spain and Ceuta and chanted slogans such as "Ceuta is not for sale, Ceuta defends itself" and "Ceuta is not a CETI." They also demanded the resignations of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Government Delegate in the city, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano.
The protest starts from the Military Hospital
The chosen location to start the mobilization is directly related to one of the reasons for the protests in recent days. The Military Hospital is among the sites considered within the device designed to manage the situation of migrant people who remain in Ceuta after the massive entry recorded at the end of July.
The demonstrators have expressed their rejection of the use of this type of facility and other public spaces in the city to temporarily house migrants.
The march this Wednesday continues the mobilization from Tuesday, when hundreds of residents toured different areas of Ceuta after learning about the spaces that the Government planned to make available for the device.
The previous protest had as one of its main focuses the possible use of several sports complexes, a measure that had also faced rejection from the Government of Juan Vivas.
More than 2,000 people in front of the Government Delegation
The mobilization has increased in size during its route. More than 2,000 people were finally concentrated in front of the Government Delegation, according to Europa Press.
The National Police has deployed a security device at the entrances to the building in light of the concentration of demonstrators. The agents have controlled the entrances while the meeting convened to address the crisis was taking place inside.
The attendees have maintained the protests during the meeting and have requested that a solution be expedited for the people who still remain in the city.
The protest coincides with the meeting of Torres and Vivas
The concentration has developed while Ángel Víctor Torres presided over the first meeting of the body responsible for coordinating the response to the crisis in Ceuta.
In the meeting, ten ministers participated, as Torres later explained, along with the president of the Autonomous City, Juan Vivas, and representatives of the involved administrations. The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, Elma Saiz, was also present.
The meeting served to address, among other issues, the necessary resources to carry out the tasks of triage, identification, and subsequent individual processing of the files of the people who remain in Ceuta.
Torres announced that the unified command will hold weekly meetings and that a new meeting presided over by Pedro Sánchez will take place this Friday.
The sports centers are removed from the device
One of the main changes known this Wednesday specifically affects the facilities that had caused part of the protests.
After the meeting, Torres announced that the sports centers in Ceuta initially contemplated will no longer be part of the spaces planned to assist migrants. The unified command will study other alternatives proposed by the Government of the Autonomous City.
The decision goes beyond the position that the minister had expressed hours earlier. After his first meeting with Vivas, Torres had defined the list of facilities as a "modifiable and flexible maximum proposal" and had assured that the sports centers would only be used in an extreme situation.
The Government must now determine what alternative locations can be used to carry out the necessary grouping, identification, and triage tasks before deciding what procedure corresponds to each person.
The withdrawal of the sports centers, however, has not prevented the second consecutive day of protests in Ceuta, which this Wednesday gathered more than 2,000 people in front of the representation of the central Government.