Ceuta migrants: Spain to add 1,800 shelter places

Spain announced temporary shelters for 1,800 migrants in Ceuta on Thursday, saying the facilities are meant to ease a humanitarian crisis after last month's mass border crossing from Morocco.

The migration ministry said the new shelters would be expanded progressively as other planned spaces are adapted. It said transfers would be voluntary and aimed at giving migrants an alternative to sleeping on streets or beaches.

Spanish government figures say about 72,000 migrants crossed into the North African territory on July 30 and 31, and about 70,000 have since returned to Morocco. Thousands remain, including unaccompanied children who cannot be summarily deported.

Many of those still in Ceuta have struggled to access food, water, shelter and sanitation. NGOs have warned that women and girls are particularly vulnerable. Some residents have complained about insecurity and hygiene problems and accused the government of neglecting the city.

The migrants' future has become a political dispute between Spain's leftist central government and regions governed by the conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox, which oppose taking in unaccompanied children under existing legal provisions.

The government wants to transfer 500 girls to mainland Spain. Ruben Perez Correa, Spain's secretary of state for children, told Cadena SER radio that mass deportations of minors are illegal in Spain. He said some unaccompanied girls in Ceuta are as young as 10 or 11 and require specialised care.