Ceuta figures at more than 3,000 the migrants who still live outside the enabled accommodations

Barcelona"Nothing has changed even a little bit. There are thousands of immigrants who still remain in the city, many of them on the street," stated the spokesperson for the Ceuta government, Alejandro Ramírez, and the Minister of the Presidency of the same executive, Alberto Gaitán. They said this coinciding with the three-month anniversary of the massive influx of migrants at the end of July. According to the data provided by the regional executive this Saturday, at this moment there are 7,500 people housed in the different camps set up, to which should be added those who would still be outside these facilities. "We estimate that currently between 3,000 and 4,000 people could still be outside the accommodations provided by the [Spanish] government. Regarding the minors, I wouldn't know the exact figure, but they tell us that there could still be between 400 and 500 on the street," stated Gaitán.

Three months later, the regional government considers that the city continues to have not recovered normalcy. On one hand, they denounce that no return has been executed through the ordinary channel or, at the very least, that no data has been provided to them regarding these operations. "We only know the figures for voluntary returns, which continue to stand at around 13,215, and for expulsions for having committed some type of crime, which were already 608," stated this Saturday the Minister of the Presidency, Alberto Gaitán. On the other hand, they estimate at 3,626 the number of minors hosted in the resources of the Spanish enclave, a figure that exceeds the ordinary capacity of the centers by 125 times, and attributes part of this situation to the lack of response from Morocco regarding the pending repatriation files, which it estimates at around seventy.

Both popular leaders are skeptical about the possibility that the situation will change substantially at the end of November. "If after three months the figure for returns by ordinary procedures is zero, we have many doubts that more than fifteen thousand returns can be carried out in practically a month and a half, or approximately the month that remains," questioned Ramírez. In fact, ten days ago the Ceuta government already anticipated that it would file a contentious-administrative appeal before the Supreme Court due to the "lack of information" in relation to the migrant return process.

Gaitán added that they have "repeatedly" requested to be provided with deadlines and a calendar for when normality will be restored: "And there is never any response from the State government." Regarding the economic impact of the crisis, the executive led by the conservative Juan Jesús Vivas has recently asserted that it has resulted in direct economic losses of 75 million euros and a 90% drop in tourism. For its part, the Confederation of Business Owners of Ceuta (CECE) has also made public its estimates regarding losses in commerce, hospitality, tourism, and the services sector, which, they state in a press release, could reach 28.2 million euros.