Spain’s interior minister urged restraint on Thursday as unrest in Ceuta spilled into clashes between residents and police, amid anger over migrants still in the Spanish enclave after a huge July surge across the border.
The territory, home to about 80,000 people, has been on edge since at least 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta over several days in July, prompting a Europe-wide migrant alert.
Spain’s leftist government says most have since left the 18.5-square-kilometre enclave, but thousands are still reported to be roaming the streets and sleeping on beaches.
In recent days, demonstrations have gathered momentum, culminating yesterday in confrontations with police at a beach where migrants have been bedding down.
Some of the migrants’ belongings were set on fire.
The Spanish government said that most of the migrants have returned to Morocco
In a separate incident, a soldier was injured when migrants threw stones at troops, and 12 Moroccan migrants were arrested, authorities said.
Sources said two additional arrests followed after migrants attacked a police officer.
“Violence is not the answer,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told parliament today.
“I call for calm and an end to any form of violence, because… violence is not the way to resolve any problem with the complexity of that facing Ceuta,” he added.
Juan Vivas, the head of Ceuta’s local government, said peaceful protests “to demand the return to normality” were legitimate, but he warned that the authorities would act against anyone responsible for vandalism.
“We totally reject the use of any kind of violence,” he said in an institutional address.
“No one can or should take the law into their own hands. The defence of Ceuta and the interests of its people can only be pursued through legality.”
Right-wing and far-right parties have called for all the migrants to be rounded up and returned to their home countries.
Mr Grande-Marlaska accused those parties of “inciting hatred and confrontation” in Ceuta.
The government has stressed that each person must be identified to determine whether they qualify for asylum or should be deported, while unaccompanied migrant children are entitled to special protection.
Ceuta and Melilla, another small Spanish territory in North Africa, make up Europe’s only land border with Africa.
