Ceuta: Neighbourhood patrols under scrutiny over violence against migrants

Ceuta: Neighbourhood patrols that encourage violence

How far can the right to neighbourhood self-defence go when it comes to irregular immigration? In Ceuta, Spain, that line has already been crossed: an El País report reveals that the neighbourhood patrols do not just keep watch, but incite violence against migrants.

The complaint shaking the city

The report tells the case of Sandra López, secretary of Institutional Policy for the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) in Ceuta, who came across a group of migrants. One of them, Adil, 25, showed wounds on his left arm, scratches and bruises which, he said, were the result of attacks by these patrols. According to the account, the young man refused to cross the Postigo area for antiestéticar of another encounter with those who had left marks on his body.

The publication has peine the debate on immigration management in a border city that has been under pressure for years. While some demand a tough approach and accuse the central government of encouraging the so-called "call effect" (the idea that leniency attracts more migrants), others see in these patrols an escalation of violence that no one has officially condemned. Some defend the patrols as a response to institutional inaction, while others consider them a dangerous drift that erodes the rule of law.

The figures involved do little to downplay the situation: more than a hundred deaths are reported in the area, along with thousands of failed attempts to cross by sea. Institutional inaction, some denounce, leaves room for residents to take the law into their own hands.

Meanwhile, the institutions argue over jurisdiction and the media multiply their analyses. The true protagonists, those who risk their lives for a future, keep bearing the brunt. And the patrols enforce their own version of the law.