Hundreds of people return to the Trampolín beach in Ceuta after the eviction

Barcelona / MadridSecurity forces deployed early this Friday morning to the Trampolín beach in Ceuta, where around 500 people have gathered again after being evicted on Thursday. The return occurred one day after more than 1,200 migrants were transferred from this same point to two temporary reception spaces enabled by the Spanish government. The return of these people to the beach has temporarily halted the work of the cleaning teams of the Ceuta government, who had begun dismantling the improvised shacks that the people had built there to shelter from the weather after more than three weeks.

Some of the people who have returned to the beach have done so due to uncertainty about what will happen to them. "Some have returned out of fear of being returned, especially those who had relocated near the border, in Loma Colmenar, mostly of Moroccan origin," indicates Ramses, a social educator from the Elin organization in Ceuta, to ARA. In this way, migrants fear not knowing whether the new spaces provided will be for them to initiate asylum application procedures or if, on the contrary, they will be subjected to a return procedure.

Now, there is also a good part of the people who have returned because they were left out of the improvised reception centers. "There is a significant part of people who have tried to access the new resources because they have no alternative and have not been able to enter because there were no more places and they found themselves on the street. Therefore, a large part has also returned because there was no more space in the enabled resources," indicates Ramses, who recalls that there are people from different countries in Africa: "Sudan, Yemen, Egypt...". It is not, therefore, a new consolidated settlement, but a punctual return of people who had been relocated.

Migrants are being distributed in different spaces according to their situation. People from the Maghreb have been mainly located near the border, in Loma Colmenar, while migrants of other African nationalities, especially sub-Saharan, have been transferred to Loma Margarita, the largest space so far set up.

The Spanish government and the autonomous city continue to work to expand reception capacity with three new locations: the Montesa number 3 football field, the esplanade of the old Guano factory, and the facilities of the Hípica.