The Spanish government has apologised to the people of Ceuta for the migrant crisis that has affected the city for weeks and it has unveiled plans to overhaul the country’s immigration laws.
“I want to apologise to all those who may have felt, or who even still feel, abandoned or not sufficiently cared for,” Defence Minister Margarita Robles told a parliamentary committee.
“I have witnessed first-hand your feelings of anxiety, of abandonment, of lack of safety.”
At least 72,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa on 30 and 31 July.
Most of the migrants swam around the border fence and at least 100 people died during the mass crossing, according to figures from Ceuta’s mayor, Juan Jesús Vivas.
The vast majority of the migrants returned to Morocco within hours of their arrival, but several thousand remain in Ceuta, many of them children, and most sleeping rough on beaches or streets.
The Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been under mounting pressure to resolve the situation, with many residents and the local authorities in Ceuta, which has a population of 84,000, complaining that it is unsustainable.
The Sánchez government has now declared a situation of interest for national security in the city, centralising management of the crisis. Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres has been tasked with co-ordinating the response, relieving the Ceuta local government of that responsibility.
