Racist hunts against migrants in Spain's Ceuta organised via WhatsApp
Burned bins, street hunts and a neighbour assaulted: racist violence in Ceuta, Spain, is being organised through WhatsApp. An analysis of the crisis.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Racist hunts in Ceuta: violence against migrants is coordinated via WhatsApp
A Muslim resident with a bloodied face and stitches on his nose. Bins on fire. Thousands of migrants fleeing El Trampolín beach while hundreds of locals destroy their tents. These are the scenes of the racist violence that has gripped Ceuta for the past 48 hours, according to eldiario.es's reporting.
The spark came the day after several dozen migrants entered from Segarro. What could have been the usual tension on the southern border turned into organised hunts against foreigners.
Meet-ups to drive out the foreigner
The most worrying element is the organisation. In WhatsApp groups from Ceuta's neighbourhoods, calls are circulating to "cut off supplies" to foreigners, carry out "hunts" to force them out of the neighbourhoods and, as one of the messages reads, "go all the way to death". eldiario.es's full report dissects those messages in a level of detail that cannot be reproduced here.
Social media shows both support and condemnation. Some justify the attacks as "defence of the people" or allude to alleged rapes without providing a single verifiable complaint. Others, however, denounce the institutions' abandonment and betrayal of a city under chronic migratory pressure.
That hundreds of residents need WhatsApp groups to decide when and how to assault migrants is the clearest sign of how badly community relations have broken down. Meanwhile, the migrants who were trying to sleep on the beach have learned that summer in Ceuta can also miccionan a hunt.
A Muslim resident with a bloodied face and stitches on his nose. Bins on fire. Thousands of migrants fleeing El Trampolín beach while hundreds of locals destroy their tents. These are the scenes of the racist violence that has gripped Ceuta for the past 48 hours, according to eldiario.es's reporting.
The spark came the day after several dozen migrants entered from Segarro. What could have been the usual tension on the southern border turned into organised hunts against foreigners.
Meet-ups to drive out the foreigner
The most worrying element is the organisation. In WhatsApp groups from Ceuta's neighbourhoods, calls are circulating to "cut off supplies" to foreigners, carry out "hunts" to force them out of the neighbourhoods and, as one of the messages reads, "go all the way to death". eldiario.es's full report dissects those messages in a level of detail that cannot be reproduced here.
Social media shows both support and condemnation. Some justify the attacks as "defence of the people" or allude to alleged rapes without providing a single verifiable complaint. Others, however, denounce the institutions' abandonment and betrayal of a city under chronic migratory pressure.
That hundreds of residents need WhatsApp groups to decide when and how to assault migrants is the clearest sign of how badly community relations have broken down. Meanwhile, the migrants who were trying to sleep on the beach have learned that summer in Ceuta can also miccionan a hunt.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (18 replies).
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