Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 27, 2024, p. 32

Madrid. The migratory pressure on the Spanish border has moved to the city of Ceuta, on the border with Morocco, where dozens of people, many of them minors, tried to swim across the border on Sunday night and Monday morning.

The Spanish government, headed by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, has stepped up security on the beach of El Tarajal, precisely where in 2014 one of the most dramatic days in the history of the region took place after an attempt by a mass influx of people ended with dozens of deaths.

At this border point, where attempts to swim to Spanish soil are common, as the separation between Morocco and Spain is a few metres of sea, a special protocol was also activated by the Spanish Civil Guard, which ordered the evacuation of the beach more than 24 hours ago, in coordination with the Moroccan gendarmerie, which prevents access to the beach on the other side of the fence.

Even so, dozens of people, many of them minors, evaded surveillance and arrived with wet clothes and half-frozen bodies after spending the night outdoors, waiting for the moment to cross the border.

The migrants were taken to the Temporary Immigrant Stay Centre (CETI), including those who were intercepted on the street after having crossed the border by swimming and without being detected by the Spanish police.

As in the Canary Islands, these reception centres are saturated, with overoccupancy that in some cases is close to 500 percent and where minors are also found.

The government delegate in Ceuta, Cristina Pérez, explained that beyond Regarding the migration phenomenon, I do not want to ignore something that it entails, and that is the drama. They come to our land looking for better living conditions. Immigration represents a real drama for the city of Ceuta, seeing how they reach our shores..