Overview
- The operation to clear makeshift camps and move people into a tented site in the Port of Ceuta began on Friday, Sept. 18, and produced crowd surges, warning shots or rubber bullets and some injuries as police struggled to contain people seeking the 1,700 available places.
- Authorities say the port facility is intended mainly for adult men and that unaccompanied minors are being separated for different processing and transfer to separate care, while no new child-only facility has yet been opened in Ceuta.
- Local and central estimates of how many migrants remain on the enclave vary widely, with Ceuta officials putting the figure in the low tens of thousands and Madrid giving lower counts, leaving thousands still sleeping in makeshift beach camps that humanitarian groups say lack basic services.
- The port move followed a National High Court authorisation after legal and political disputes, and it has fed opposition attacks on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez over preparedness and whether intelligence warnings from late July were escalated appropriately.
- Beyond immediate shelter needs, the operation will test Spain’s ability to individually identify migrants for asylum or return, to protect vulnerable people, and to coordinate with EU agencies and Morocco as pressure and protests from Ceuta residents rise.