Migrationskrise in Spanien: Ceuta: Demonstranten legen Feuer in Migrantenlager

Demonstrating protesters in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, set fires within a migrant camp and called for the immediate repatriation of the migrants back to Morocco. On Benítez beach, where migrants had been camping for weeks, civilians were seen throwing objects into the fire. Police separated the demonstrators from the migrants who had taken refuge in a moat.

Earlier, protesters had attempted to block the vehicles of the Red Cross with food and water for the migrants. Thousands of migrants remained in the enclave, with a mass influx of up to 80,000 from Morocco in late July, many swimming across. At least 96 migrants were killed according to official reports. Most of the migrants returned shortly after, but several thousand remained in Ceuta.

The conservative Spanish opposition demands the people be sent back, but international treaties and Spanish court rulings prohibit collective deportations and require a case-by-case examination. Unaccompanied minors receive special protection, with around 1,500 children and youths estimated to be present. Five hundred of them, primarily girls, are to be brought to the Spanish mainland.

The Spanish government is under immense pressure due to the crisis. The left-wing Spanish government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faces criticism for failing the people and leaving them to their fate. The government also presents contradictory information about whether a warning about the mass influx existed. While Defense Minister Margarita Robles emphasized that her ministry's intelligence service CNI had warned the authorities a day before the mass influx, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and other government members insisted there had been no warning of such a scale. Prime Minister Sánchez plans to address the Parliament on the matter on September 3rd.