Night of riots in Ceuta, 12 migrants detained, four wounded military personnel and attacks and persecution of Ceuti migrants

The night has been long and very tense in Ceuta, a night of protests and riots in which four soldiers have been injured, twelve migrants arrested and hundreds of Ceuta's citizens persecuted migrants.

As in previous days, thousands of Ceutians gathered on Wednesday afternoon in front of the headquarters of the Government Delegation in the autonomous city to call for the expulsion of immigrants on the streets and to call for the resignation of policymakers in a new protest marked by tension and anger after 27 days of migration crisis.

During the mobilisation they shouted slogans against the Spanish Government and its delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, and called for the resignation of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, among others.

The mobilisation highlighted the level of social tension in Ceuta, where citizen protests have become constant since the onset of the crisis; they are concentrating every day before the government delegation.

Four soldiers wounded 

This tension was compounded at night by a series of incidents in which migrants stoned a military vehicle with four military personnel inside, injuring the four military personnel.

According to police sources, around 5:30 a.m. in the Benzu area, a group of migrants of between 30 and 40 people surrounded the vehicle carrying four military personnel, who began throwing large stones.

The soldiers who had to be treated for their injuries had managed to escape and had called 112, which had led to the mobilization of officers of the National Police and the Civil Guard and the arrest of 12 fleeing Moroccans, while several of those involved in the incident had attempted to flee by sea, forcing the Civil Guard Maritime Service to intervene in the area.

Persecution of migrants

Prior to the attack, hundreds of citizens provoked riots. After the demonstration, some four hundred people marched to Trampoline Beach and, according to police sources, attempted to attack migrants who met on the road.

The security forces managed to prevent them from entering the beach thanks to a large deployment; they even fired into the air to dismantle that attempt, but another group managed to gain access to Benítez Beach, where hundreds of migrants were camped out.

There the neighbors attacked the migrants and destroyed the blankets, mattresses and other goods in the sand and threw them into the sea, while the officers had to fire saves and smoke boats.

Riots spread for hours at various points in the city, including traffic disruptions due to trash cans crossing the road. 

The National Police and the Local Police put in place a comprehensive device to prevent further quarrels or disturbances.