Lorraine Williamson
Around 1,500 migrants have been moved from the makeshift camp at El Trampolín beach in Ceuta into temporary accommodation opened by the Spanish government. The large-scale operation began early on Thursday morning and was completed peacefully before 10.30 am, marking a significant new phase in the response to the migration emergency that has gripped the autonomous city since the mass border crossing at the end of July.
Police began moving people from El Trampolín at around 7.30 am, with those leaving the beach taken to newly opened facilities at Loma Margarita and El Embolsamiento.
The government says the two sites currently provide around 1,800 places. That is the available reception capacity rather than the number transferred: RTVE reported that approximately 1,500 people had been relocated from the beach by late Thursday morning.
The operation was coordinated by Spain’s security forces alongside the central government and Ceuta authorities. Some groups were still in the beach area shortly after the main clearance had finished, but there were no reports of serious incidents during the operation.
For almost three weeks, migrants had been sleeping in makeshift shelters built from branches, cardboard and plastic around El Trampolín and other parts of Ceuta after the city’s existing reception system became overwhelmed.
RTVE’s verification team documented people sleeping on beaches, roadsides and in improvised settlements, including women and children. It estimated that around 1,500 people had been living at El Trampolín alone in the days before Thursday’s operation.
Four temporary reception sites planned
Loma Margarita and El Embolsamiento are the first sites to become operational under the emergency accommodation programme.
Two further temporary locations are planned at La Hípica and the former football ground at the Caballería barracks, while another space at El Guano has also formed part of the wider accommodation planning as the government seeks to increase capacity.
The temporary facilities are intended to provide safer accommodation, food, washing facilities and other basic assistance for people who had been sleeping outdoors.
Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion runs its humanitarian assistance programme for vulnerable migrants arriving through the country’s coasts and the land borders at Ceuta and Melilla. Services can include emergency accommodation, urgent health and social care, basic supplies and transfers to other facilities.
Pressure on Ceuta continues
Thursday’s relocation does not bring the wider Ceuta crisis to an end.
Thousands of people entered the autonomous city during the extraordinary border events of 30 and 31 July, placing severe pressure on accommodation, healthcare, policing and children’s services.
The government has pledged additional financial and technical support to Ceuta, particularly for unaccompanied children. Earlier this month, youth and childhood minister Sira Rego announced an extraordinary €25 million allocation for Ceuta and the deployment of a specialist ministry team to help accelerate reception procedures.
Ministers are also working on arrangements to move around 500 particularly vulnerable unaccompanied minors from Ceuta to reception facilities on mainland Spain, although the details of that operation remain politically disputed.
The relocation of adults from El Trampolín is therefore only one part of a much larger effort to reduce the pressure on the city.
From makeshift camp to organised accommodation
Conditions at El Trampolín had become one of the most visible symbols of the crisis.
Migrants had constructed improvised shelters while charities, volunteers and public services provided food and medical assistance. Demonstrations were also held at the beach by migrants asking for asylum and for a solution to their situation.
Thursday’s operation means that one of the largest of those makeshift settlements has now been substantially cleared.
The immediate question is whether the new facilities — and additional sites still being prepared — will provide enough capacity to remove the remaining street and roadside encampments across Ceuta.