The Government of Ceuta, overwhelmed by the massive entry last Thursday, is trying to expand its reception capacity by reorganizing its facilities and conditioning an industrial building and a warehouse. With these spaces, it seeks to shelter the 862 migrant minors it has been attending since the mass arrival, although authorities believe there could be “some more on the street,” a figure that has not yet been quantified. The Ceuta Executive assumes that the number of minors will continue to increase to around a thousand and plans to request greater financial allocation from the central government to address the emergency. For now, and until these places are properly conditioned, something they expect to achieve “in the next hours or days,” the boys are in the facilities available in the city, somewhat crowded, according to Alberto Gaitán, the Minister of the Presidency, responsible for the Minors area. The minors who spent the first hours sleeping at the door of a warehouse that the city has conditioned near the El Tarajal border have already been relocated, Gaitán assures.
In recent days, there have been no extraordinary transfers of minors to the peninsula, which require a series of procedures, although they will be requested. The city services, accustomed in the last two years to the arrival of migrant minors by swimming, have multiplied their efforts providing assistance to the boys, such as food, clothing, or accommodation, and relocating them. “We are preparing resources to have them in the most comfortable conditions,” Gaitán details. Although some minors still remain on the city streets, they assure that the city is being combed to locate them. The youngest, and those who are undoubtedly minors, have been housed in better conditions, while the older ones have been placed in provisional locations. It is common for some children to take refuge for a time in the homes of relatives and acquaintances and then go to city services, so the figure may increase.
Through the minor transfer mechanism, which they began applying at the end of September last year, the city has transferred 655 minors to the peninsula. “We reached 200 minors by mid-July,” Gaitán details. As the days passed, the entries of minors who accessed by swimming increased until reaching the 862 they house this Monday. The Ceuta Government insists that they were already raising the alarm that something was happening, that there was a “significant” entry of minors by swimming. “We warned that the situation was getting complicated and that something could happen,” their minister emphasizes.
In the coming days, they will begin processing transfers of minors under the protection of Royal Decree Law/2025, which modified the organic law, to transfer the boys as soon as possible. “We have no way to shelter them,” he insists. “It is the mechanism we have, and it will have to continue to be used to alleviate the situation in Ceuta,” he adds.
Its ordinary capacity, set by the Ministry of Youth and Childhood at 29 places, is widely overwhelmed, with an occupancy rate close to 3,000% of its capacity. “2,865, round numbers,” he specifies. “This is an unsustainable situation, it overwhelms all our capacities and demands a response as quickly as possible,” he demands.
One of the buildings they are conditioning is a large industrial warehouse, like the one they have been using since 2024, when numerous entries of minors also occurred, and which is located in the El Tarajal Industrial Park. At that time, the city was already warning, as it continues to do now, that it could not handle such an arrival of minors alone and was calling for help from the Government.