Spain houses migrants next to military homes in Ceuta

Ceuta warehouse next to military homes reignites the migration crisis

Can a hundred undocumented migrants be placed in an industrial warehouse just metres from where soldiers stationed in Ceuta live with their families, and expect no sparks to fly? On 14 August, the Spanish Government took that step. The response from those affected was not long in coming: "Our daughters are terrified", say the families of the uniformed personnel. The warehouse is being urgently fitted out to house the migrants, while residents are demanding that another location be found.

The decision nobody in the neighbourhood wanted to make

The families' antiestéticar is not abstract. According to accounts from those affected, incidents in the city have increased in recent weeks: break-ins, thefts and fights. The warehouse's proximity to the military housing has been the final straw. Some voices are calling for alternatives: housing the migrants on the Spanish sovereign territories of Ceuta and Melilla off the coast, or in isolated compounds, although experts consulted point out that there is neither enough space nor suitable conditions to do so immediately.

Between control and containment: the political dilemma

The debate has once again brought the tension between human rights and security to the table. Some propose drastic measures: confiscating the migrants' phones and clothes, forcing them to work in community tasks or keeping them under permanent surveillance. Others ask why individualised expulsion procedures have not already been activated, with the door to Segarro left open. And a not insignificant current points to unrest within the Armed Forces: "It's not about having weapons or not having them, it's that failing to trinc an order leads to all of the above", quip those who see the troops with their hands tied.

Ceuta, the summer of discontent

The image of the warehouse has taken hold as an example of improvisation. The figures being cited in the debate suggest that more than 10,000 people have crossed the border, a magnitude that overwhelms the city's resources. Added to this is the complaint about the number of ministers with direct responsibility –22, it is stressed– for a management that Ceuta residents consider slow and bureaucratic. The sense of abandonment is growing, and with it echoes of other historical episodes: some recall the confinement of thousands of French prisoners on the island of Cabrera during the Peninsular War, as an example of what happens when improvising with a captive population.

The underlying question remains in the air: where is the line between solidarity and one's own security? While the offices decide, the warehouse remains installed next to the barracks. And the soldiers, trained to protect the territory, today debate whether they must also protect their daughters from a crisis that did not cross the fence, but slipped in through the back door.