"There are those who want us to do magic": Puente warns of the lack of alternatives to the Ceuta port camp

BarcelonaAfter sources from the Spanish government reacted this Wednesday with "perplexity" to the decision of the National Court to halt the installation of the migrant camp at the port of Ceuta, Minister Óscar Puente has put words to this sentiment. "There are those who want us to perform magic," he declared in an interview with TVE. The head of Transport has warned of the lack of alternative locations to place the camp and has requested speed in their final decision regarding the future of the space.

Puente, who recalled that the camp seeks to streamline the identification and, where appropriate, the expulsion of the migrants who entered the autonomous city on July 30, stated that the dimensions of Ceuta make the options for locating the facility "very limited." "Going to the port is not a whim [...] It is not easy to find alternatives," he said, adding that the justice system will leave the Spanish government in a "dead end" if it prevents the camp from coming into operation. "We will see what possibilities there are to resolve this [the crisis in Ceuta] if we do not have spaces where we can do it," he said.

Shortly before, in an interview with Cadena Ser, fellow minister Óscar López had already defended that "the port is a good place" and that "there are not that many alternatives in Ceuta." And in the same line as his government colleague, he has "begged" the National Court to act "quickly" and "urgently" to be able to return "normality" to the autonomous city.

The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has also demanded "responsibility", "institutional loyalty", and "impartiality" from the judiciary in an interview on RNE. What the Spanish court has done is temporarily paralyze the camp, which was supposed to host a thousand people, while it studies the request from the Unified Police Union (SUP) so that it is not located at the port.

"Vivas has not collaborated at any time"

Puente did not refrain from criticizing the vacillations of the Ceuta government regarding the camp. "The port was one of the first options, but the government of Ceuta did not want [...], the sports centers were not suitable either because they affected the lives of the citizens [...] and in the end an agreement was reached for two plots of land at the port," he said, criticizing that the executive of Juan Jesús Vivas eventually backed out, a fact he described as a "profound disloyalty." "Mr. Vivas, beyond defending Ceuta with words, has not collaborated with the Spanish government at any time," he said, delving into the clash between the state government and that of the autonomous city.

Both Puente and López have also wanted to fuel criticism of the judges and the rest of the "agents" who want the crisis in Ceuta to "fester", in the words of the Minister of Transport, who has especially criticized the "spokes in the wheels" from the PP. "There are individual people who seem to have heeded Mr. Aznar's call for whoever can do something to do it," he added, with López referring to some magistrates. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to find arguments to defend that there is impartiality in all decisions," added President Illa.