The Government closes the final figure of people who arrived in Ceuta in the massive entry, remaining at 72,000

Some doubts have arisen about the exact number of people who crossed the Ceuta border from Morocco, entering massively last July 30. The final figure is around 72,000 people, who were the protagonists of the massive entry into the autonomous city of Ceuta.

According to sources from the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, the figure has not increased. This has to do with the statements offered by Minister Ángel Víctor Torres in an appearance in Ceuta this Monday, in which he spoke of the figure being around 80,000 people. However, the Department insists that Torres's intention was to dimension the situation of July 30 by comparing it with the population of Ceuta. "The figure has not increased in any case," they highlighted.

It was the Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska, who on Tuesday, August 4, put the figure for the massive entry of migrant people into Ceuta at 72,000 people, this being the data to take into account. Of all these people, according to Torres this same Monday, "within 24 to 48 hours most returned."

Regarding the issue of minors, Torres has indicated that the priority is to facilitate their reunification with their families. However, he has acknowledged that this procedure presents difficulties, as it requires locating family members and having the consent of both the minor and their family and the authorities of the country of origin.

The Government plans to resort to the mechanisms contemplated in the reform of the Immigration Law to distribute minors among different communities when a migratory contingency situation is activated. Torres has recalled that more than 2,000 minors have already been transferred from Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands to other territories, around 700 of them from Ceuta, with the aim of preventing the pressure of reception from concentrating in border cities.

The lack of reception places is another of the difficulties the city faces. The Executive is analyzing different spaces that can be enabled to care for the minors, among them the old military hospital, whose facilities have already been inspected. Torres has defended that the objective is to offer a response "as adequate as possible" and has admitted that, although the situation is no longer that of the first moments of the emergency, the presence of the minors continues to generate considerable pressure on Ceuta. "What we have to do is work with loyalty," he claimed.