The Government has raised this Tuesday to 5,482 the number of migrants who have voluntarily returned to Morocco since last August 10. To that figure are added 307 expulsions and about a hundred people who have renounced to request international protection.
The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, responsible for the single command created to manage the Ceuta crisis, has also reported that the authorities have already initiated 1,822 adult files. Currently, 4,160 people are being attended in temporary facilities, where identification, triage, and study of each case are carried out.
The Executive considers that most of the adults remaining in the city will not be entitled to international protection and may return to Morocco when the procedures are completed. Torres has asked that people who are still sleeping in the streets and beaches enter the enabled resources to be able to identify them and process their files.
"It's a mathematical rule. The sooner they are in resources, the sooner they can be returned. The longer we take, the more delayed the start of the files will be," he explained during the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
The first files for minors are already underway
The main novelty affects the children and adolescents who arrived during the massive entry on July 30 and 31. The first ten files for minors began to be processed this Monday, after the agreement that will allow having a lawyer during the interviews was closed.
Legal assistance is mandatory since the application of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum. The royal decree-law approved by the Government at the beginning of September, endowed with 63 million euros, reserved two million to finance that legal representation and allow the procedures to advance with all guarantees.
Each file must verify the identity of the minor, their family situation, and the conditions under which they could return. The priority objective is reunification with their families in Morocco, provided that a safe reception can be accredited. Some minors have already expressed their willingness to return, although any transfer requires completing the procedure beforehand.
"The immediate return of minors is impossible," Torres has acknowledged. When family reunification proves unfeasible, children may continue under protection in Ceuta or be transferred to resources in other autonomous communities.
The updated balance by the Government places at 2,048 the minors who are already registered and under the city's guardianship, of which 1,612 arrived during the days of late July. Another 300 are in facilities dependent on the central Executive.
The pending figure remains high. Torres estimates that between 700 and 1,000 minors still remain unregistered on the streets, an estimate based on the meals distributed daily. The Government is preparing new deployments of specialized teams to locate them, identify them, and offer them a place.
More places, vaccines, and economic support for Ceuta
The Executive is working with a forecast of up to 10,000 temporary places to remove settlements from the streets and beaches. The first objective is to ensure that all people have accommodation, basic care, and access to administrative procedures.
The Ministry of Equality is also preparing the immediate transfer of about 300 women to facilities with better conditions, while the health device continues. Nearly 2,000 migrants have already received vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, chickenpox, and polio. At the University Hospital of Ceuta, 21 migrant people remain admitted, within a center with 210 beds.
Educational activity offers another sign of recovery. Attendance in classrooms began last Wednesday at 75%, rose to 80% the next day, and reached 88.3% this Monday. This Tuesday it has reached 90.43%, a percentage that the Government considers typical of a normal school day.
The Council of Ministers has also approved the conditions of a line of guarantees from the Official Credit Institute (ICO) of 50 million euros for companies and self-employed individuals affected by the crisis. The program will cover liquidity needs and new investments, with guarantees of up to 80% for small and medium-sized enterprises and 70% for large companies.
The Treasury has received in just two days 408 applications for direct aid. The deadline will remain open until November 30 and the first payments are expected around October 6.
The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, has asked the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to guarantee the collaboration of the communities governed by his party in the transfer of minors. She has also asked the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, to facilitate joint work between administrations.
Torres has announced new affiliation operations in the coming days and has committed to enabling "all necessary spaces" to get people who are still unidentified off the streets.
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