Migrants resumed occupying the beach in Ceuta early in the morning after the completion of cleaning and disinfection work carried out at the site. Initially, migrants were grouped between a breakwater and the wall of the Ceuta Desalination Plant, according to the Spanish agency Europa Presse.
For the cleaning to take place, the Spanish autonomous city had imposed the condition that the migrants leave the area to ensure the safety of the workers. While the staff carried out the cleaning, accompanied by the police, the immigrants who had spent the night at El Trampolín waited in a designated area.
During this period, other immigrants began to arrive, some carrying bags of food provided by various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating with immigrant communities on the ground. Spokespersons for these organizations informed Europa Press that the migrants would remain at El Trampolín until they found another place to spend the night.
However, late in the morning, the migrants returned to occupy the beach as soon as the hygiene tasks were finished. Many arrived with tents already set up, while others rebuilt provisional structures using materials found in the area.
On Thursday, the cleaning operation in El Trampolín was suspended because dozens of people who had been relocated from the makeshift camp returned to the site to retrieve their belongings. Services from the Spanish Directorate-General for Environment, Urban Services, and Housing had begun removing debris, personal belongings, crates, and cardboard accumulated during the last weeks of occupation.
Spanish authorities determined the interruption of the work due to security concerns, as there was no presence of security forces at the site to guarantee the integrity of the workers and the normal progress of the operation. The autonomous city stated that the work could only resume when the necessary conditions were met to carry out the operation with due security guarantees.
This halt occurred just hours after the evacuation of El Trampolín, where more than 1,200 migrants were led on foot and escorted by the Spanish police to new temporary reception centers established in Loma Margarita, El Embolsamiento, and Loma Colmenar.
The cleaning plan was implemented by the city with the purpose of restoring the environmental, landscape, sanitary, and public use conditions of this coastal space, which had been occupied since the massive arrival of people in Ceuta, which occurred on July 30 and 31.
The migration crisis in Ceuta manifested when approximately 72,000 individuals entered the Spanish autonomous city, located in North Africa, within a 24-hour period. Data from Spanish authorities indicate that about 70,000 of these migrants have already returned to Morocco. At the beginning of August, it was estimated that between three thousand and five thousand migrants, including minors and young people, remained in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
Ceuta, a small territory with 80,000 inhabitants located in the northernmost part of Morocco and bordered by the Strait of Gibraltar, constitutes one of the two land borders between Africa and Europe, alongside the other Spanish enclave, Melilla.