The Minister of Health denies a health collapse in Ceuta and the president of the city asks her to listen to the health workers

Since the massive entry into Ceuta, thousands of migrants have been living in precarious conditions in industrial estates and natural spaces in the city. Some have wounds and illnesses, and are treated on the street by healthcare professionals and NGO members. But according to the Minister of Health, Mónica García, it is not true that the city's health services are overwhelmed, as local authorities and healthcare professionals themselves denounce. García, who visited Ceuta this Sunday for the first time since the start of the migratory and humanitarian crisis, limited herself to saying that some services, such as primary care, are "strained".

"There is no health collapse in Ceuta," stated the Minister of Health, who stressed that no professional has had to be asked to cancel holidays and that the local hospital has 50% of its beds available. Ceuta, unlike the peninsular autonomous communities, does not have health competencies, so these are exercised directly from Madrid. García has rejected the messages warning that some migrants are carrying diseases such as tuberculosis, has asked the population to remain calm, has said there are no reasons for fear, and has insisted that "migrants do not carry diseases".

García seems to have shrugged off responsibility by saying that the Spanish government has the health resources to meet the demands of immigrants "but we need spaces to treat them," implying that it is the regional administration, in the hands of the PP, that should be responsible for providing spaces to accommodate migrants with health problems. According to the minister, the main health risk is derived from migrants living "crowded together," which is why she has asked the city to cede spaces where the health of thousands of people who have nowhere to sleep can be assessed.

The minister's version is not shared by regional officials, who point out that the reason health centers are not even more strained is because most sick migrants or those needing care do not dare to go to hospitals or primary care centers for fear of being detained and deported to Morocco. For this reason, they prefer to be treated by volunteers on the street, in the mountains, or on the beach, where makeshift camps have begun to be set up.

The president of Ceuta, the popular Juan Jesús Vivas, who met with the minister, asked her to attend to the demands of the professionals and insisted that normality in the autonomous city has been "radically altered". Vivas told García that healthcare is one of the "pillars of the State" and asked her to take into account when making decisions that the situation is "extremely critical, with a population that lives with bated breath. Ceuta is in danger", he said.