On the esplanade of Loma Margarita in Ceuta, near what will be the city’s sole military base, about twenty legionnaires surrounded around fifty immigrants yesterday at noon, who had previously been herded there in groups. Sitting in the shade, wearing the same swimsuit they had on four days ago when they jumped from Morocco to Spain, they waited for instructions from the legionnaires to board a bus that would take them to the border to supposedly return voluntarily to their country. “You,” “you,” “you,” a soldier shouted, as a way of distributing return tickets, with no other criteria than the appearance of the young men. Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, a member of the Ceuta association Elín closely watches the scene because they have detected that among the bagged youths there are many minors and three Sudanese: neither group can be summarily expelled by law. The bus fills up without them. And the loud clap of a legionnaire gives them the green light to get up and leave. Even if only to continue wandering around the outskirts of the city, until they are detained again.

The Temporary Stay Center for Immigrants (CETI) in Ceuta is a powder keg about to explode. Again. With a capacity of 512 places, although it currently houses 700 people, hundreds of immigrants who crossed into Spain this week with the permissiveness of Morocco are increasingly nervously waiting their turn to access the facility, where they can find something as basic as water or food, which they do not find on the street. The National Police try to keep them at bay, but the desperation is palpable in the atmosphere of the area that has become the current hot spot of the migration crisis.