Madrid is reportedly planning to give beds to 10,000 illegals in Spain’s North African Ceuta exclave, undermining claims made by the Sánchez government and indicating that the crisis facing the small city is nowhere near over.
While Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska claimed last month that there only remained around 5,000 illegal aliens in Ceuta following the dramatic storming of the border by an invasion of upwards of 70,000 migrants from Morocco in July, reports indicate that the true number remaining within the city is much higher.
According to Spain’s paper of record, ABC, La Moncloa is preparing to expand its accommodation capacity for alleged asylum seekers within the next month to house some 10,000 migrants.
This would be in addition to the 2,000 beds dedicated to supposed unaccompanied minors within the city, many of whom were left behind by their families in the wake of the invasion, given their better chances at receiving refugee status in Spain due to their age.
The paper remarked that this would directly contradict the claims from the government on the number of illegals continuing to roam the streets of the small city, or who remain in ramshackle reed and garbage tents on Trampolin Beach.
The government’s aim is reportedly to secure accommodation “sufficiently far” from the city centre, in order to restore some sense of normality to Ceuta, despite the exclave of just 87,000 seeing its population swell by over a tenth since before the invasion.
Yet the need to provide housing to the illegals demonstrates that the crisis is likely to continue until at least next year, with nearly all of the aliens claiming asylum and therefore entitled to have their claims assessed under EU regulations.
ABC noted that, despite many migrants not qualifying for asylum, they can take advantage of the free housing, food, and healthcare available to asylum seekers while officials work through the thousands of cases. Given the often-slow process, Spain’s Ministry of Migration is said to expect at least 6,000 migrants to remain in Ceuta at the start of next year.
While the government appears intent on creating the appearance of normality, it is unclear how easy such a feat will be, with the thousands of illegals continuing to put strain on the city’s limited resources, particularly the healthcare sector, which has been swamped by migrants demanding medical care for a range of diseases.
Stretched thin and angered over the lack of response from the Ministry of Health in Madrid, the local Cemsatse union, which represents the doctors and nurses of Ceuta, has called for a strike by September 24th.
This planned strike undermines the claims of Spanish Health Minister Mónica García, who has maintained that the mass influx of foreigners has not brought the healthcare infrastructure to the brink of collapse. The Más Madrid progressive politician also infamously claimed that it was “xenophobic” to say that the migrants had brought disease. This came despite confirmed cases of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
Concerns have also been raised over the potential geopolitical motive of the Islamist Alawite regime in Morocco, with former Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Arancha González Laya suggesting this week that the migrant invasion was a “hybrid attack” conducted by Rabat in order to advance its “neo-imperialist” aims of reclaiming the territory of Ceuta for itself after centuries of Spanish control.
This comes after Spain’s National Police issued a report claiming to have evidence that agents of the Moroccan state — both uniformed and in plain clothes — were seen actively directing migrants toward border crossings on July 30th during the invasion. Morocco has denied involvement.
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