Ceuta is at its limit. It can’t take any more. One month after the massive entry of 80,000 immigrants from Morocco – equivalent to its entire population – it is on the verge of exhaustion. With a cry for help, all the political groups of the autonomous city, including the PSOE, spoke out this Friday, unanimously demanding that the Government act “immediately” to “avoid disaster.” President Juan Jesús Vivas read an institutional statement, signed by the spokespeople of PP, Vox, PSOE, MDyC, and Ceuta Ya, which states that “the city has lost its way of life and tranquility, it has ceased to be what it was before last July 30.”
Vivas appeared surrounded by all the deputies of the Ceuta Assembly after the meeting of the Board of Spokespersons to read a harsh statement that highlights the Government’s inaction, which took almost a month to react and has been inconsistent in its measures.
“Our city is immersed in a critical situation, on the verge of collapse. A high-risk situation for citizen security, the normal functioning of services, health and public health, the maintenance of economic activity and employment, coexistence, confidence in the future, and national security,” he said. These are words also echoed by members of the Security Forces, neighbors, merchants, parents of students, and teachers, who unanimously feel “abandoned in chaos.”
Speaking for all political parties, the Ceuta president made a plea to Pedro Sánchez’s Executive: “To avoid disaster, we do not have much time; it is necessary for the National Government to act immediately, without further delay, in order to restore normality, through the return to their country, according to the law, of those who participated in the massive entry and still remain in our city.” According to Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska this Friday, 5,000 immigrants remain in the city.
“Border Shielding”
They also demand reinforcement of the Security Forces and the shielding of the border, as well as “repairing the damage that the crisis is causing to the productive fabric, workers, companies, and self-employed; ensuring the functioning of services; shielding the inviolability of the border; attending to the humanitarian emergency derived from the crisis; and laying the foundations to emerge stronger from this harsh ordeal, the toughest in Ceuta’s recent history.”
Regarding the acts of vandalism that occurred on Thursday, with a group of protesters setting fire to immigrants’ shacks on the beach, the parties have rejected them “with total firmness” and said they do not represent the people of Ceuta and have requested that all defense of the interests of the autonomous city be carried out from “legality, responsibility, and respect for coexistence.”
“No one can or should take justice into their own hands,” says the statement, which warns that all those who cause damage to urban furniture will be sanctioned.
The Assembly has described the citizen demonstrations as “legitimate and fully justified,” provided they are carried out “peacefully and orderly.”
The statement concludes with a message of unity from all the political forces represented in the Assembly: “Together and united, Ceuta does not surrender, Ceuta defends itself.”
