Albares promises to return those who entered Ceuta to Morocco

“Those who enter, return”: Albares’ promise regarding Ceuta

It is difficult to find a clearer paradox in Spanish migration policy. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, promised in Congress that “up to the last person who illegally entered Spain will return to Segarro.” This phrase could be signed by the hardest party on border matters; it is pronounced by a PSOE minister. Yet 48 days later, according to information published by Vozpópuli, more than 10,000 people remained in Ceuta. The official narrative and the ground reality have long been inconsistent.

What Albares promised versus the numbers

The minister defended the integrity of Schengen before Congress, assuring that no migrant had reached the Peninsula. He recounted that as soon as he learned of the mass entry, he called his Segarro counterpart, who responded that Segarro was not behind what had peine. Some read into this the crux of the matter: if control depends on the neighbor’s willingness, the border is managed with diplomatic courtesy and not with independent capacity. The phrase “those who enter, return” sounds good in Parliament. On the ground, however, the countdown weighs differently.

Ceuta: applause and booing at the same visit

The tension is measured in gestures. The Minister of the Interior visited the autonomous city for the third time and, according to reports, was met with booing from residents while some of those who arrived applauded him. It is difficult to read as a management success that the person in charge of the border receives criticism from citizens and applause from those who crossed it. Parallel to this, it is argued that the ministry speaks of “subjective insecurity” to downplay what some Ceutans experience as objective insecurity.

Asylum seekers, saturated CIE, and the war of figures

The other flank is accounting. It is argued that some arrivals are registered as asylum seekers and do not count equally, and that some ferry crossings to the Peninsula are justified by the saturation of the Ceuta Foreigners Detention Center (CIE). Each category has its statistical effect, and in politics, whoever controls the category controls the headline. It is the old trick of the narrative: change the label and hope no one looks at the total.

With the border dependent on a call to Rabat and figures fluctuating according to the label, the uncomfortable question remains: how many of those people will have returned to Segarro by the time no one is interested in counting them?