Spanish security forces cleared the Guano migrant camp on Ceuta’s northern coast on Sunday morning. Adults and children were separated and people were transported by bus. elDiario.es describes most adults subsequently crossing into Morocco. Spain’s Interior Ministry calls the returns voluntary, while migrants and organisations describe pressure after earlier clearances. The operation removed the city’s last major coastal encampment.
Geopolitics··Evening
Police and troops clear Guano beach
The Guano migrant encampment in Ceuta, Spain’s North African enclave, was cleared on Sunday morning. National Police officers and troops surrounded the site on the northern bay and separated adults from children. Guano was the last major coastal encampment outside the areas designated by the government and local administration. The operation followed a series of recent clearances of settlements in the city.[1], [2]
elDiario.es describes around 150 people being removed from the site. Some residents had left with their belongings before the operation began. The clearance started five minutes before eight and three buses arrived twenty minutes after eight. Journalists were unable to observe the operation in one part of the settlement. RTVE puts the camp’s earlier population at more than 500 and describes some people fleeing into the hills to avoid registration.[1], [2]
Adults taken to the border area and children for identification
According to elDiario.es, fewer than a hundred adults were taken to the Tarajal border area. They were expected to be transferred to a temporary reception centre for identification, but most crossed into Morocco. Its on-site account describes some people being held by the arm by officers and others crossing under police escort. Spain’s Interior Ministry describes these returns as voluntary. It says people choosing to avoid identification returned after transfer to the temporary centre and an initial assessment.[1]
Children were taken to National Police headquarters for identification before their planned placement in accommodation under the local administration’s guardianship. Some people within the government delegation said camps had space. Others in the same institution described adult camps and the temporary reception centre as almost full.[1]
Earlier beach clearances also prompted disputes over returns
Migrants and organisations describe pressure during returns to Morocco after the earlier Trampolín clearance. They say officers warned people who did not return immediately of eventual repatriation through legal procedures and a ban on entering the European Union. The ministry says the procedure at Guano matches the earlier Trampolín and Benítez operations.[1]
Earlier clearances in Ceuta took place near the desalination plant on 27 September, at Benítez beach on 29 September and at Trampolín beach on 4 and 5 October. According to RTVE, most of approximately 1,700 people transferred from the earlier two beaches, apart from children and small groups of adults, chose voluntary return to Morocco. People at Guano had been trying to shelter from cold and rain over the previous two weeks; children had earlier demonstrated for places in reception facilities.[2]
