By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Hundreds of migrants who recently entered Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Sunday held a demonstration on a popular urban beach, urging Spanish authorities to grant them asylum, rejecting plans to send them back to Morocco.
They are part of the estimated 5,000 to 8,000 persons who remain in Ceuta after the mass border crossing two weeks ago that saw over 72,000 people surge into the small territory of about 80,000.
A vast majority returned voluntarily in the following days.
As the city’s resources continue to come under heavy pressure, most migrants were living in precarious conditions on El Trampolin beach, awaiting a chance to journey on to continental Europe.
“We’re sleeping next to the sea, with cold and bad smells. We’re suffering a lot,” Reuters quoted Ayoub Elarroud from Morocco’s Tetouan as saying. He said police were blocking migrants from accessing the city centre.
The protesters held Spanish flags and banners with the inscription, “We don’t want to go back to Morocco” and “We are also human”, while chanting slogans such as “We’re tired” or “We need a solution”.
On the rocky shores behind them, some migrants washed their clothes while others fished with makeshift bamboo rods.
Earlier this week, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said migrants who had entered irregularly would not be allowed to stay in the enclave, travel to mainland Spain or obtain legal status, except in rare cases involving extreme vulnerability.
The head of Ceuta’s medical board, Enrique Roviralta, told Onda Cero radio that the city’s limited healthcare workers were exhausted and criticised what he described as a slow response by the central government.
Roviralta added that diseases such as infectious diarrhoea and scabies were breaking out, and violence-related injuries such as broken noses or stab wounds were rising.
On Sunday, Health Minister Monica Garcia rejected suggestions that local health services had “collapsed”, but acknowledged they were under pressure.
