The Minister of Justice of Morocco, Abdellatif Ouahbi, on Friday claimed Morocco's "historical and geographical right" over Ceuta and Melilla. In an interview with the Moroccan public channel 2M, he called for dialogue with Spain to address their future and achieve their "return to the homeland." The interview took place in the context of the entry into force on Thursday of a new law on the legal profession in Morocco, but the most striking statement was about relations between Morocco and Spain. Ouahbi assured that the issue of Ceuta and Melilla must remain a matter of dialogue between the two countries.

The fachosphere has been buzzing these days against the case of Wafae Atid, a young Moroccan woman who participated in the attempt of massive entry into Spain by sea through Ceuta and who explained her case to El País. In statements made in perfect English, Atid explained that in Morocco "men are above women" and at home they gave her problems, for example, when traveling alone or adopting a certain lifestyle. Automatically, some profiles took advantage to track her social networks and reveal that the young woman had been in places like Qatar or Indonesia and that there was no evidence that she was going through great hardship. A campaign quickly began against her, for being a fraud, and against El País, for giving her a voice.

In a straight line between Ceuta and Algeciras or La Línea de la Concepción there are about 30 kilometers and, by ferry, the journey does not take more than an hour and a bit. But the humanitarian crisis following the massive entry of July 30 and 31 has turned these journeys into a lucrative business for mafias, who take advantage of the desperation of migrants living precariously in Ceuta and charge them up to 9,000 euros per person to get on a raft or inflatable boat. Although the route has lost the importance it had in the 90s due to police pressure and Moroccan control, the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior indicate a 16% increase in irregular maritime entries to the Peninsula, while departures to the Canary Islands are falling by 60%, awaiting what will happen from the autumn when the sea state improves.

The intention of the public administrations to clear El Trampolín beach in Ceuta clashes with the fear of many immigrants of being forcibly deported to Morocco. Twice (Thursday morning and Friday morning) they have been evicted to be transferred to temporary reception centers, and on both occasions they have returned to occupy the sand. Added to the fear that they will be sent to the other side of the border is the evidence that the 1,800 places opened by the Spanish government in two locations are entirely insufficient to attend to all immigrants, the number of whom remains an unknown. Faced with this situation, many of those who were evicted from the beach camp on Thursday have returned this Friday as they have nowhere to take refuge.

The magistrate Joaquim Bosch (Cullera, 1965) speaks to ARA to explain the special protection of immigrant minors who are in Ceuta under the care of the Spanish authorities.

The sun was just beginning to rise when the National Police and the Civil Guard deployed a huge operation this Thursday in the El Trampolín beach in Ceuta to evict the thousands of immigrants – there are no official figures to know how many there are – who were living there in subhuman conditions since the massive influx at the end of July. Escorted by the police and with the support of social organizations, about 1,700 people have paraded on foot to the first two temporary reception centers that the Spanish government has just opened to try to restore normality to the African city, broken by the arrival of thousands of immigrants. Just a few hours later, when municipal brigades were still cleaning up trash and all sorts of items that the immigrants had used to set up a precarious camp, about 500 people returned, forcing the municipal brigades to stop their work. Their fear is that, in an official place, they will be returned to Morocco, as some have explained to ARA.

Twenty days after the Ceuta migratory crisis, the Spanish government seems to be starting to realize that it also has a humanitarian crisis to manage. After the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, insisted at first that all the people who crossed the border that day would return on their own as if by magic, the passage of days has shown a much more dramatic reality. Almost three weeks after the entry, there is not even an official figure of how many adult and minor migrants remain in the city. It is known, however, that 2,168 children are registered in the protection system, although registrations are ongoing. Estimates from NGOs and the Ceuta government are that between 5,000 and 8,000 migrants remain in the autonomous city. Returns, however, continue to be very slow. And, meanwhile, all these people, including minors, have spent days and days without any kind of attention or place to stay, thus creating a very critical situation in the city.

The Ministry of Youth and Childhood is working to transfer up to 500 unaccompanied immigrant girls and adolescents from Ceuta to the Peninsula, according to ministry sources. The proposal is for the autonomous city's government to maintain guardianship of the minors and for custody to be transferred to social entities that manage reception centers. This is the solution they have found to speed up the usual process by which guardianship is transferred to the receiving community, which has the competencies.

Everyone seems to be looking for a "solution" for Ceuta. A week ago, the Spanish government and the PP fully agreed on the idea of returning all immigrants who remained in the autonomous city. Also on prioritizing family reunification in the case of minors. The issue was that those who remained in Ceuta should also end up leaving. In fact, the trickle of returns has not stopped, police sources tell ARA, and some NGOs suspect that illegalities may have been committed among the first cases.

On Monday, an unpleasant incident occurred in Ceuta that quickly began to spread across the networks. An extremist assaulted a journalist from the digital media El Pueblo de Ceuta believing, due to his appearance, that he was an immigrant. Firstly, it is striking that this individual feels so impunity to think he can assault an immigrant in front of all the media without repercussions. Secondly, the incident is a demonstration of what happens when racial bias is applied generically: a certain skin color equates to a specific human condition. The man ended up apologizing and acknowledging his error [sic], but that's not all.

The exchange of recriminations is not an anomaly in Spanish politics. And Ceuta, which has been experiencing a humanitarian emergency for weeks, is no exception. Pedro Sánchez's government now accuses the PP of going to Ceuta to "further strain" the situation, while the Popular Party raises its tone against the central executive and its crisis management. This is being done by the PP leadership, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the helm, but also by the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), who, a day after meeting with government spokesperson Elma Saiz, stated that they feel "abandoned" by the central executive, in statements to the media on Tuesday afternoon. Hours earlier, Feijóo also criticized that Pedro Sánchez's executive is "absent" and "indifferent" to the situation in Ceuta.

Eighteen days after the entry of tens of thousands of people from Morocco to Ceuta, the European Commission maintains its position on the future of migrants who remain in the autonomous city. The community executive has argued that all of them should be returned, including the more than two thousand minors who have entered without adult relatives and to whom community law and Spanish immigration law itself grant special protection. Brussels argues that European Union law also provides for them to be returned. "We continue to insist that the expectation is that all those who are irregularly in Ceuta will be returned," said the spokesman for the Internal Affairs commission, Markus Lammert, this Tuesday at a press conference.

Amidst the tension, an agreement. Despite maintaining cross-accusations between the two administrations, the Spanish government and that of Ceuta have agreed this Monday to open four humanitarian aid points in the autonomous city to assist migrant individuals who arrived during the massive influx and are now living in precarious conditions in industrial estates and on beaches. In a press conference, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, Elma Saiz, announced that these four new centers will offer 1,500 new places to assist adult migrants. Support that arrives 18 days after the outbreak of this migration crisis.

The political clash over the situation in Ceuta escalates as the humanitarian crisis remains evident in the city. The tension between the government of Ceuta and Pedro Sánchez's executive has increased in volume after the president of the autonomous city, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), threatened to go to court if Moncloa does not "solve" the crisis within 30 days. A path, currently unspecified, which has the support of Gènova, that has found in the migratory crisis a new vein to wear down Pedro Sánchez. Meanwhile, the Spanish government avoids a head-on confrontation, defending its actions and the "collaboration" between institutions, in the words of the government spokesperson and Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, who this Monday traveled to Ceuta for the first time since the entry of thousands of people on July 30, even though her responsibilities include ensuring a reception network for asylum seekers.

Since the massive entry into Ceuta, thousands of migrants are living in precarious conditions in industrial estates and natural areas of the city. Some have injuries and illnesses, and health workers and NGO members attend to them in the street. However, according to the Spanish Minister of Health, Mónica García, it is not true that the city's health services are collapsed, as denounced by local authorities and health workers themselves. García, who visited Ceuta this Sunday for the first time since the beginning of the migratory and humanitarian crisis, limited herself to saying that some services, such as primary care, are "strained." Words that have outraged the regional government and the national PP, which has once again called for her resignation.

This summer's migration crisis has once again placed Ceuta and Melilla at the center of the political debate between Spain and Morocco. In an interview with the Arab television channel Asharq News, the Moroccan Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, acknowledged on Wednesday that the claim of sovereignty over both cities "remains on the table," although he called for "calm" and a long-term solution through dialogue. "Inside Ceuta there are Moroccans and there are Spaniards, and we continue to hold onto our territories," Ouahbi stated.

The migratory crisis in Ceuta continues. Morocco's security forces frustrated a new attempt at a mass entry into the Spanish autonomous city this Saturday. Hundreds of people, mostly of sub-Saharan origin, tried to access it and were intercepted by Moroccan soldiers. This group was waiting for the moment to jump the border hidden in Fnideq, a city on the Moroccan side near the Spanish enclave. The massive jump attempt took place in a mountainous area, according to Moroccan sources reported to the Efe agency. In any case, the complex situation in the Spanish border town continues, which has caused an internal political earthquake and the clash of the Spanish government with Morocco by having questioned the Spanishness of Ceuta.

An “anti-party” that “does not align with any ideology” and rejects the “regime of 78” is responsible for the National High Court investigating the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta and that, in parallel, a court in Madrid has opened a criminal case regarding the purchase of the luxury penthouse for Isabel Díaz Ayuso. It is Iustitia Europa, a group known for intervening as popular prosecution in judicial cases involving the PSOE environment and which will make the leap to general elections in 2027. “We are transversal and we defend that the solution to corruption must come from civil society. After almost fifty years, we have a serious problem in Spain and we must move away from left-wing and right-wing ideologies,” defends its president, Luis María Pardo, in conversation with ARA.

In recent days, anonymous posts have been appearing on social media promoting a new mass entry into Ceuta this Saturday. To prevent this, both Madrid and Rabat have mobilized. "By providing ourselves with more personnel and material resources, and with a deployment of the armed forces," explained the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, this Thursday. "We will continue to implement the necessary personnel to help return to normality as soon as possible and to prevent events like those of July 30 from happening again," he added.

The reasons of those who do not want to welcome migrants, minors or half-minors, are logical. The ones everyone says in private. "We have enough problems". And they are right.