The doctors who have been working double shifts since last Thursday due to the massive influx of migrants into Ceuta demand that “there be an action plan or a protocol for emergencies and disasters.” Enrique Roviralta, president of the Ceuta Medical Association, goes further and claims that “there should have been a combined protocol from the Ministries of Defense and Health.”
From the Emergency Department of the University Hospital of Ceuta, Siham Yakhloufi highlights her work and that of her colleagues, “we have been working non-stop since Thursday and after about 48 chaotic hours, activity now somewhat decreases and we are recovering care for the Ceuta population, who out of fear have not come except when necessary,” and states that from the very beginning “we organized the hospital so it would not collapse”. This specialist explains that several triage points have been opened, “one dedicated to the people of Ceuta to maintain assistance; and two others only for migrants, one at the hospital entrance and another inside.”
All these tasks have been carried out under the consensus of the hospital manager, Yakhloufi admits, who expected more help from the city, “defense has provided us with resources.” For his part, Roviralta (also president of the Ceuta Medical Union) expected more from Madrid and from Minister Mónica García. “We were the ones who collaborated to get the necessary services going from the hospital, primary care, ambulances… Everyone has collaborated,” points out the Emergency specialist.
From the Ceuta Health Area it is reported that yesterday a total of 305 assistances were provided to Moroccans, according to information provided by the National Institute of Health Management (Ingesa). This data shows a downward trend, from more than 1,149 interventions on Friday and 463 assistances on Saturday “without notable incidents at any level of care.”
Care in the coming days
However, despite this first onslaught, “we still have a lot of work ahead.” The Emergency specialist focuses on the many minors they have attended, “many with diabetic conditions.” This condition is growing significantly in Morocco and nearly 43,300 children and adolescents, according to recent scientific publications, suffer from type 1 diabetes. “This type requires constant control, insulin dependence, and a balanced diet. Some have arrived in deplorable conditions and have needed resuscitation care,” Yakhloufi emphasizes.
For her, this group of young people represents a specific care challenge: “They stay here in the hospital while we treat them, but we cannot leave them here 24 hours. We treat them, but then, what?” Yakhloufi laments that, as generally happens, “no plan has been created for these children.” She also lists the other care they have had to provide: “Craniocerebral and limb traumas, abdominal pains… We have had to face many cases of multiple pathologies.”
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Official data from the Ministry of the Interior points to about 7,000 minors, a figure that far exceeds the city’s healthcare and reception capacity: the La Esperanza reception center, the Tarajal Nueva Esperanza warehouse, and the two spaces enabled in Piniers already have nearly 900 children registered, all of them Moroccan.
The Local Police are responsible for locating these Moroccans who are presumably minors for their transfer to the City facilities that manage the main La Esperanza center while the Samu and Engloba associations take care of the provisional resources. Yesterday Monday, according to the Efe agency, many minors were found near the Tarajal border area, in the warehouses of the industrial park located next to the border crossing.
These minors will have to undergo a series of tests to verify their age and for that “we will need reinforcements,” because in the Radiology team of the Ceuta Hospital, “there are only two radiologists”. She insists that the current shortage of doctors has been noted for years and since 2023 Royal Decree 118/2023 considers Ceuta and Melilla as places of difficult coverage where more resources and incentives must be provided. “If the minister was at the forefront during the Hantavirus crisis in the Canary Islands, why is she not here today?” questions the president of the Ceuta Medical Union.
Roviralta maintains that the “lack of infrastructure is also urgent.” Now, he says, “they are giving use to the Military Hospital, when it could have been maintained and not only rescued when the need is pressing.” Currently, it is used as a morgue to house and identify bodies recovered from the sea after the influx on Thursday and Friday.
Both doctors hope to return to normality – “although there is always extra activity due to the arrival of migrants, it is always an additional workload we count on,” Yakhloufi acknowledges, throughout the week. “This will be a trickle over the coming days. Orthopedic surgeons are still performing surgeries to address fractures of those who have passed through Emergency,” Roviralta says.
