They assault and set fire to the Ceuta migrant camp

Madrid / BarcelonaThe worst migratory crisis in recent years is pushing Ceuta to its limit. This Thursday, hundreds of people — it is currently unknown if they are all from Ceuta — blocked the access of a Red Cross truck for more than two hours to Trampolín beach, where the organization distributes food to the immigrants who have remained there since the entry on July 30. Afterwards, the protesters, many of them carrying Spanish flags, sticks, and stones, broke the police cordon at Benítez beach, stormed the camp where these people have been sleeping for almost a month, and set fire to two straw parasols that had become makeshift shelters for the migrants to take refuge from the sun.

Before storming the beach, the protesters chanted slogans such as "we will not move from this road" or "I am Spanish" and expressed their unease at the prolongation of a situation that, as they have denounced, is conditioning the daily lives of residents and generating a growing sense of insecurity. During the rally, criticism was also heard against the Red Cross and calls not to buy their coupons, in protest of the attention they give to immigrants settled in different parts of the city, according to Efe.

This is a trend that has already been seen in previous rallies in the city. "Tension is growing in Ceuta. Demonstrations with very undesirable slogans and a very hostile attitude towards social organizations on the ground are being activated, and this worries us a lot. It is uncomfortable to walk in the street and it is important that it be stopped. We are very concerned about the climate of tension, which is enormous, and there are those who fuel the tension with irresponsible speeches," explains the general director of the Sur Acoge Federation, José Miguel Morales, in a telephone conversation with ARA. This organization, with a presence in Ceuta, is responsible for the reception and support of a large number of girls and women on the ground.

Thus, while a part of Ceuta's citizenry continues to offer a humanitarian response to the migrant population, others are radicalizing their discourse, and some have even resorted to violence this Thursday with the assault on the camp. Halima, from the NGO Luna Blanca, explains to ARA that until now there was tension, but these days, after the demonstrations, "a witch hunt against the migrant population" is occurring and the city "is a powder keg".

On the other hand, the participants defended that their mobilization aims to assert the right of Ceuta residents to regain normality and have questioned why, almost a month after the massive entry, solutions that allow decongesting the city and providing a response to the people who remain there are still not being specified. The rally takes place 28 days after the entry of tens of thousands of people from Morocco, a migratory crisis - and at the same time the deadliest tragedy on the southern border since records began - which has generated strong social tension in Ceuta and has led to repeated citizen demands for administrations to adopt measures to restore normality in the city.

Hate speech

This Thursday, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, called for "non-violence" and warned that it cannot be that Red Cross workers from Ceuta feel "threatened" for feeding migrant people. The Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, asked for "calm" and "confidence" from the increasingly tense citizens of Ceuta. "We will return to normality," he promised, and downplayed the insecurity denounced by the opposition. He admitted that there has been a 4.2% increase in crime in Ceuta, but believes that the figures do not correspond to the situation portrayed by the right.

Just as politicians demand responsibility from the city's residents, they do so from those most responsible for managing the crisis. Morales, from Sur Acoge, laments the lack of agility in the humanitarian response: "We need responsible political discourse and to say and affirm that everyone must and will be able to return is not a responsible discourse, it is an anti-democratic discourse. Besides, it is impossible by law, it will not be like that".

While there are migrants who continue to be on the streets, the social entities that assist them warn that the use of words like "invasion" is what fuels hate speech towards the migrant population. This is an expression that has been used on repeated occasions by PP and Vox, who have found in this crisis a vein to toughen the anti-immigration discourse and, consequently, to pressure for stricter border control.