Last Ceuta camp removed before Spanish king’s visit

CEUTA

Spanish police organise migrants into groups before they are removed from a makeshift camp in Ceuta. (AFP Photo)

Police cleared the last major migrant encampment in Ceuta on Oct. 11, two days before a visit by Spain’s king and queen, the Interior Ministry said.

The camp sprang up after a mass influx of more than 70,000 people into the Spanish territory from neighboring Morocco on July 30 and 31. Although most returned to Morocco within days, thousands remained in Ceuta, sleeping rough in the streets or on beaches and straining the small city’s resources.

The sudden influx, during which scores of people died, sparked alarm across the European Union and triggered a political crisis in Madrid.

Police backed by soldiers arrived shortly after 8 a.m. on Oct. 11 at the El Guano esplanade, where hundreds of migrants had been camping in makeshift shelters following earlier clearances of settlements on nearby beaches, an AFP reporter saw.

Migrants were put on buses and taken to reception centers for police processing, while cleaning crews moved in to clear the esplanade and beach. Some migrants fled into nearby hills to avoid being put on buses.

Over 350 police officers from various units were involved, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding it was the fifth such operation in Ceuta in recent weeks “aimed at clearing public areas of the city.”