Thousands of migrants and asylum seekers who reached the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco at the end of July are still sleeping outdoors three weeks later, and as of 20 August Spanish authorities had not begun individual assessments of adults or opened any legal process allowing those who wish to lodge asylum claims to do so.
Tens of thousands swam from the Moroccan coast into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July. How many remain is disputed. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez said on 13 August that 5,000 people were still in the city; local organisations put the figure as high as 10,000.
Where people are living
More than a thousand men and boys are in improvised huts of sticks, cardboard and rubbish bags on Trampolín beach. Thousands more sleep in the streets, in a warehouse district near the Moroccan border, and in wooded hills on the edge of the city. Between 700 and 750 women and girls are staying in two open-air sports facilities set up by neighbourhood associations in the El Príncipe and Sidi Embarek districts, most of them under tarpaulins.
Aid arrived slowly. The Spanish Red Cross began distributing food on Trampolín beach on 3 August. On 17 August the government said it was handing out 4,000 food bags a day, while the local charity Luna Blanca says it serves between 2,700 and 3,500 meals daily at five sites with public funding. Also on 17 August, Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Minister Elma Saiz Delgado announced four tent camps with capacity for 1,500 adults; transfers to two of them started on 20 August.
Unaccompanied children
No reliable count exists of unaccompanied children in Ceuta. The Ceuta government, responsible for them under Spanish law, said it had taken 1,385 children into care by 18 August. The same day, the Interior Ministry said police had registered 2,168 unaccompanied children. Two schools currently used as temporary shelters must be cleared before the academic year begins in early September.
Prosecutors in Ceuta said they had received 13 reports of sexual assault between 30 July and 17 August. Four emergency doctors reported treating two women and six girls for sexual assault and rape.
The legal obligations
Under European Union rules in force since mid-June, Spain should already have screened everyone who arrived, including security, health and vulnerability screening. The European Convention on Human Rights, which binds Spain and applies in Ceuta, prohibits collective expulsion. The UN refugee agency in Spain has urged the authorities to provide information on the right to asylum and to identify protection needs through proper screening.
In a city of 85,000 residents, the strain has raised fears of unrest, with local aid groups warning that uncertainty is turning into hostility and calling for humanitarian support that Ceuta cannot provide alone. Spanish authorities officially recorded 82 deaths during the crossing; the Spanish organisation Caminando Fronteras points to at least 67 deaths on the Moroccan side.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
