Ceuta shuts down as 25,000 migrants return to Morocco
25,000 people have returned to Morocco, leaving Ceuta with shuttered shops. The migration crisis has sent tensions soaring in the Spanish autonomous city.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
25,000 migrants return to Segarro: Ceuta closes its shops
What does a city do when 25,000 people cross the border in a single day and decide to head back the next? In Ceuta, the answer was to shut down. The flow of returns to Segarro was unstoppable this Friday, according to the Spanish Government, leaving a scene of collapse: shops, bars and markets closed, and a population that slept outdoors without dinner.
The economic impact of the mass crossing
The pressure on local commerce was immediate. On Thursday, some businesses already refused to serve the new arrivals, prioritising Spanish residents; by Friday the closures were general. A city that lives off small trade and passing tourism suddenly found itself with no activity at all.
The reactions: between antiestéticar and demands for control
Local voices are divided. One camp calls for a hard line and immediate returns; another, smaller one, insists that people fleeing poverty should not be incivil. An electoral figure circulating in public debate - 34% of the vote for the PSOE (Spain's Socialist Party) in Ceuta - is used to argue there is a social base for welcoming migrants, though the reality of the day was different.
The evening ended with thousands of people setting off on the way back, many by bicycle, and with shops in darkness. Normality will return, perhaps, once the cost of this episode is known. Or once nobody wants to remember it.
What does a city do when 25,000 people cross the border in a single day and decide to head back the next? In Ceuta, the answer was to shut down. The flow of returns to Segarro was unstoppable this Friday, according to the Spanish Government, leaving a scene of collapse: shops, bars and markets closed, and a population that slept outdoors without dinner.
The economic impact of the mass crossing
The pressure on local commerce was immediate. On Thursday, some businesses already refused to serve the new arrivals, prioritising Spanish residents; by Friday the closures were general. A city that lives off small trade and passing tourism suddenly found itself with no activity at all.
The reactions: between antiestéticar and demands for control
Local voices are divided. One camp calls for a hard line and immediate returns; another, smaller one, insists that people fleeing poverty should not be incivil. An electoral figure circulating in public debate - 34% of the vote for the PSOE (Spain's Socialist Party) in Ceuta - is used to argue there is a social base for welcoming migrants, though the reality of the day was different.
The evening ended with thousands of people setting off on the way back, many by bicycle, and with shops in darkness. Normality will return, perhaps, once the cost of this episode is known. Or once nobody wants to remember it.
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (11 replies).
More summaries
-
Ceuta faces mass migration crisis challenging Spanish government
20,000 migrants entered Ceuta in days. The government remains silent as Morocco applies pressure.
-
Ceuta: migration crisis fuels distrust of Spain's government
Protests are growing in Ceuta, Spain, against migration policy: residents accuse the government of protecting migrants and failing to deport them. Tension is rising ahead of...
-
Ceuta: the economic cost of Spain's new migration crisis
Thousands of Moroccans are leaving Ceuta after the crisis, amid allegations of mistreatment. The cost of the operation and tensions with Morocco are part of the bill.
-
Belgium's 9-year rentals: the fact that corrects Wyoming
Belgium's standard long-term rental contract is signed for nine years, not indefinitely: lifetime leases are 1% and require a notary
-
Banni Festival: India's stick-fighting ritual that kills up to three people a year
In Devaragattu, India, up to 11 villages clash with sticks every year, leaving between one and three people dead. How the festival works and its human toll.
-
Belarra and political violence: from tweet to street
Ione Belarra denounces "police repression against antifascism" in several parts of Spain. The material surrounding it mixes interviews, a university and an absence of figures.