The agents of the Civil Guard have recovered on Wednesday morning the body of a male on the coast of Ceuta. The deceased, dressed in blue fins and a neoprene, was on the shore of the beach of the desnarigado, in the surroundings of Mount Hacho, in front of the Peñón de Gibraltar. To this area, far removed from the border, young people who decide to take the longest and dangerous route when they are thrown into the sea from Morocco. The swimmers have to open inside and if they do not reach the shore they risk that the current takes them to the Strait, they explain knowledgeable sources of these paths. With this death, 21 deaths have already been counted this year linked to attempts to reach Ceutí territory through the sea. So far in August there have been four cases.
The Autonomous City continues to receive strong migratory pressure, which increases especially at night with strong fog. Last Friday, for example, the Civil Guard and the Moroccan authorities collaborated to contain, according to consulted sources. Since then, the pressure has been attenuated, coinciding with the change from wind to west. This meteorological tranquility, which allows to see the coast with greater sharpness, has been accompanied by the finding of the young man on Wednesday by members of the Civil Guard. The boy’s body, of Maghreb traits, has been collected by members of the Special Group of Underwater Activities (GEAS). The deceased had a pair of shoes tied to the shoulders.
“It is possible that you carry documentation and mobile phone,” contemplates a police source, although this information will not be known until the autopsy is practiced, scheduled for tomorrow Thursday morning. On Monday, the Civil Guard agents found the body of another male 500 meters from the beach of Juan XXIII.
The swimming paths that migrants usually perform, which are helped with fins, floats and neoprene costumes, go from three to eight kilometers depending on the three most common entry and exit points. Since the arrivals to swim through the two border areas, (by the southern bay, in the area of the Tarajal border, and where the customs is; and in the northern part, in the border with the Ceutí nucleus of Benzú).
In recent weeks, at least two cases of irregular arrivals of migrants in water motorcycles have also been detected, who rent in Morocco and their occupants leave embarrassing when they reach the Ceutí coast. It is, according to Civil Guard sources, a new way of proceeding after previous years has acted with great forcefulness against the use of these vessels, which has been prohibited since 2023 away more than two miles from the city’s coast in any direction in any direction and also abandon Spanish jurisdictional waters. Sources consulted estimate that 80% of the irgular entries of migrants is produced by the sea, over the 20% that makes it jumping the fence.
The Autonomous City asked the Government for the Summer Moroccan, of which it has to assume the guardianship. This year, the saturation of the provisional resources that the local government has arranged for minors continues, and the Migrant Internment Center (Ceuta), which welcomes asylum applicants, is also above their capacity. The Civil Guard agents who work in the operations every night, such as those destined in the maritime service, dedicated to helping migrants and containing their arrival, in collaboration with the Moroccan authorities, they also accuse the wear and tear of a phenomenon that is exacerbated in the summer months, but which also occurs, and with greater risk for the life of migrants, in the months of greatest cold.
Between January 1 and August 15 they have managed to access CEUTA by land, which includes swimming entries and jumps through the fence, 1,725 immigrants, 7.2% more than in 2024, according to data from the last migratory balance of the Ministry of Interior. Last year, an increase of 143%had been recorded on these dates. In the last 15 days, 269 people have managed to enter Spanish. In July 474 people did it.
