After swimming to Ceuta, many youngsters have decided to end their journey, but the situation in the North African exclave is still far from normal
Hundreds of youngsters who arrived in the Spanish North African city of Ceuta this week have decided to return home. Many of the migrants left Morocco on Monday and Tuesday with a little more than their cellphone and a few dirhams in their pocket. Some swam to the exclave city while others crossed the jetties separating Ceuta from Morocco on foot. Once in Spanish territory, they spent hours wandering the streets. Now, after sleeping outside for one or two nights – some without eating – hundreds of the youngsters have made their way to the border at Tarajal to return home. In the line to leave, organized by the military to ensure an orderly departure, the same phrases are heard: “There is nothing in Morocco,” “I came here to make a living, but there’s nothing here either,” “I tried to reach the mainland, but I didn’t make it.”
Ceuta is seeing the reverse of what happened on Monday and Tuesday when between 8,000 and 9,000 migrants crossed into the city, according to estimates from security forces. According to the Spanish government, 5,600 people have since been sent back to Morocco. Spain’s Interior Ministry said thousands of these expulsions were “refusals at the border,” a euphemism for irregular expulsions or express deportations. But since Tuesday, hundreds have decided to return home voluntarily. “There is no greater discussion for those who still want to enter [Ceuta] than to see so many people returning,” said a source from Spain’s security forces.
Samira Ajbar, 17, crossed into Ceuta with dozens of other youngsters from her neighborhood on Sunday night. She made the journey on foot, wearing sandals and a skirt. It was not an idea she had given much thought to – all of her friends were leaving so she decided to join them. “There is nothing in Morocco, we are destroyed,” she says as she waits at the border to return home. Ajbar had thought that as a minor she could stay in a shelter, but after wandering the streets for several days she gave up hope. “It’s all full,” she says. “They tried to trick us by saying we could go to a CETI [temporary holding center], but they didn’t let us in.” Instead, she and her friends slept outdoors near the port. Now she is preparing to return to Fnideq, a town of around 7,000 people that is also known as Castillejos.