Ceuta Migrants Struggle to Survive Amid Heat and Cold Nights

Ceuta (GNP): Migrants remaining in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta are struggling to survive without shelter more than a week after an unprecedented mass crossing brought tens of thousands of people into the territory from Morocco. Several thousand people are believed to still be in Ceuta following last week’s influx, with many sleeping without tents or blankets on El Trampolín beach, enduring bitter cold at night and unbearable heat during the day. One 26-year-old migrant from Yemen described surviving on just two hours of sleep due to the conditions, with no access to bathrooms.

While Ceuta’s shops and markets have reopened and much of the city’s roughly 84,000 residents have resumed daily routines, the enclave’s long-serving conservative leader said the population remains deeply shaken by the crisis. He said the city was still far from returning to normal, comparing the scale of disruption to fifty million people entering Spain in a single day.

Uncertainty also persists over the exact number of people who crossed and how many remain, with Spanish authorities estimating about 72,000 people entered and roughly 2,500 remain, while local officials placed the figures higher, at around 80,000 arrivals with between 3,000 and 5,000 still present.

The death toll from the crossing remains unclear, with estimates reaching as high as 141 and dozens of people still reported missing, raising fears the final count could rise further. Concerns have also grown over reports that Moroccan officials encouraged or facilitated the crossing, prompting Ceuta’s leadership to question the reliability of Morocco as a neighbouring country and to raise doubts about the security of the border. Fresh online calls for another mass crossing in mid-August have added to tension in the enclave, with residents voicing anxiety over whether the events of the past week could be repeated.

Conditions for migrants improved slightly in recent days as aid organisations including the Red Cross began distributing food, and Spanish authorities said they were installing additional toilets and showers on the beach along with an information point.

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Among those still in Ceuta are an estimated 1,300 unaccompanied children, with aid groups warning that hundreds more, some as young as ten, may be moving through the city without protection. Local residents in the Sidi Mbarek neighbourhood have responded by setting up a makeshift shelter in a courtyard, watched over nightly by volunteers concerned about the vulnerability of women and minors sleeping in the surrounding hills.

Community solidarity efforts have expanded across Ceuta in recent days, including volunteers cooking to feed up to 400 people daily and a local charity distributing about 5,000 meals a day. Some residents have also brought food, clothing and mobile internet access to migrants at El Trampolín beach, describing those they met, many of them asylum seekers from Sudan, Egypt and Yemen, as remaining courteous and willing to share limited resources with others despite their own hardship.