Ceuta migration crisis
Ceuta leader criticises the government for failing to prevent migration crisis despite warnings
Juan Jesús Vivas has also denounced the government's lack of control over the data and is calling for a return-to-normality plan
President of the regional government of Ceuta Juan Jesús Vivas has joined other voices in criticising the central government for what they see as an ... insufficient response to the migration crisis in Ceuta.
He is calling for a concrete plan to restore "normality" to the Spanish territory as soon as possible.
Vivas has criticised the government for failing to "prevent" the 70,000-80,000 migrants from crossing the border from Morocco on 30 and 31 July, after Defence Minister Margarita Robles acknowledged that the national intelligence centre (CNI) had reported warnings they day before.
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The announcement Robles made is contrary to the claims of Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who said that there had been no report whatsoever suggesting that that might happen.
Vivas said that the people of Ceuta are now "tired" and "fed up" with living in "abnormal" circumstances, while the government has failed to provide "a real and concrete solution".
On Wednesday, Minister for Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres will head the single command structure that aims to respond to the needs of migrants and to Vivas' demands: "resolve" the migration crisis as soon as possible so that Ceuta residents can "regain their way of life as quickly as possible".
According to Vivas, many questions remain unanswered. "It is clear that this emergency could have been avoided ," he said in response to the remarks Robles made in Parliament on Tuesday.
"The government had been warned and it was in a position to act, yet it failed to do so," Vivas added, promising residents "not to give up", even if that means going to the courts.
Vivas said that he had already organised a schedule of meetings with EU institutions from 7 September onwards, to show them "how the people of Ceuta are feeling".
He also stated that, one month after the mass influx of migrants on 30 and 31 July, "we still do not know how many of those who entered are currently in Ceuta" and that "no significant progress has been made" towards a return to normality. According to Vivas, this requires the return to Morocco of all those who crossed the border unlawfully on those days.
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