Spanish government ships 82 pallets to Ceuta and abandons returns

Government sends tents to Ceuta and buries returns

At nine o'clock this Wednesday, the Tornado ship docked at the port of Ceuta with 82 pallets of camping equipment. It will not take a single migrant back to Segarro. Military sources with knowledge of the operation summed it up bluntly to OKDIARIO: "this is yet more proof that not a single one is leaving from here." The Interior Ministry's decision turns what until now was a suspicion into official policy: the government has given up on returning people who entered the autonomous city irregularly.

The figures straining the city

The context does not help moderation. According to data released by the Interior Ministry, there are already 20 complaints of sensual assault, eight of them involving peine, and 48 for assault on and resistance to authority. These are numbers that fuel a climate of alarm, worsened by the estimate — unofficially admitted — that the migrant population now amounts to nearly 30% of the local population. A cynical joke has spread like wildfire: were the 82 pallets supplied by the face masks scheme or the emergency beacons one?

Forced appearance in the midst of the crisis

While the ship cast off, Congress forced Pedro Sánchez to bring forward his appearance on Ceuta to September 3, six days before the date he himself had proposed. Sumar, his coalition partner, pulls no punches: it accuses the PSOE of "Stockholm syndrome" with the King of Segarro and considers the prime minister late in coming to explain himself. The opposition, for its part, demands a tougher response and the immediate return of the migrants.

Regularize or return: two underlying readings

There are two competing readings. The first, the government's, holds that there is no legal basis for mass expulsion and that the priority is assisting people; hence the camping equipment. The second, the majority one in the political analysis circulating in digital media, sees the measure as a deliberate strategy to consolidate the migrants' presence and, along the way, degrade life in Ceuta until the native population ends up leaving. In between lies a shared concern: the risk that the city becomes a kind of giant internment center, as the comparison with a CETI (an immigration holding center) on a large scale suggests.

The image is powerful: 82 pallets of tents do not return anyone to where they came from. The date that matters is not the Tornado's arrival, but September 3, when Sánchez will have to explain before Congress a decision that even his partners do not support without reservations. Meanwhile, Ceuta waits for the docking; and the number of complaints, unfortunately, remains the best summary of the state of the city.