In Spain’s Ceuta, which has been gripped by unseen migration chaos, protesters have been demonstrating against the government and migrants for two days.
Protests over the migration crisis began on Tuesday and escalated due to Madrid’s plans to house migrants in the Coronel Fiscer barracks, continuing the following day. The majority of protesters gathered in several areas of the city, carrying Spanish flags and the flag of Ceuta as they marched towards the Plaza de los Reyes, which is located opposite the government delegation building. The protesters demanded a resolution to the migration crisis and called for the government’s resignation.
Later, the protest moved towards El Trampolín beach, where a camp of Moroccan migrants was located. To prevent direct clashes, the police secured the coastline, erecting makeshift barricades and even firing rubber bullets at the protesters. The situation escalated after the two sides began throwing stones at each other.
Video footage shows them demanding the accelerated deportation of foreign nationals who are in the country illegally and do not have the right to asylum.
A large-scale demonstration against migrants and the government coincided with a meeting of the Unified Command, presided over the Minister for Regional Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, and attended by the Minister for Integration, Social Welfare and Migration, Elma Saiz, the President of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, and other senior officials.
Even though the demonstration ended, the situation escalated on Thursday morning when between 30 and 40 people, who had arrived in Ceuta at the end of July, ambushed soldiers and pelted them with large stones. The attack took place as the soldiers were travelling in an armoured vehicle and had almost reached an observation post. The group began pelting the soldiers’ vehicle with stones, forcing them to abandon it, and continued to pursue them until the soldiers reached a safe area. The police later said that 12 Moroccan nationals had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack, which left four soldiers injured in the Bensou area.
The Ceuta government called for calm and urged residents to prevent further escalation of tensions against the backdrop of the ongoing migration crisis.
According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, 80,000 migrants entered the country on 30 and 31 July, the majority of whom have already been returned; however, between 5,000 and 8,000 migrants, including 1,500 minors who entered the country illegally, remain in the city, camping out on beaches and in the streets, as the city’s infrastructure is overwhelmed.
The protests coincided with statements by the Jabaroot hacking group, which accused the Moroccan authorities of co-ordinating a mass arrival of migrants into the Spanish enclave, and claimed that, prior to the crisis, numerous agents had been sent to Europe to carry out “dirtier intelligence missions, such as espionage, the installation of listening devices, and the bribery of politicians and businessmen.”
Protests took place two weeks after protests by illegal migrants, who urged the Spanish authorities to grant them asylum rather than send them back to Morocco.
