Fires in migrant settlements in Ceuta destroy tents after threats to ‘burn you’

Ceuta awoke Friday to the aftermath of a night of fires in various parts of the Spanish city amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment. The first, which broke out around midnight, occurred in the migrant settlement of Las Naves del Tarajal and destroyed at least 40 tents and shacks, reducing them to ashes. Specifically, the flames originated in the area of the informal settlement where families with children were living in tents. In total, some 200 people who have not been housed in any official facility remain there awaiting a spot, over a month after a mass influx of migrants crossed the border from Morocco into the Spanish exclave in North Africa. According to emergency services, there were no injuries and the fire was brought under control within two hours.

The fire was the second incident reported at the El Tarajal camps this week. On Tuesday, a group of hooded assailants — who also struck in the early hours of the morning — threw stones at the tents, harassing the families. A young boy was seriously injured by shots fired from a pellet gun while he was sleeping with his parents and brother inside a tent. Ali, age six, was taken to hospital by the police and received emergency treatment. According to the complaint filed by his mother, to which this newspaper has had access, the attackers harassed them by shouting in Dariya (a colloquial variety of Arabic spoken in Morocco): “We’re going to burn you.”

The vast majority of the estimated 80,000 people who crossed into Ceuta during the mass breaching of the border have returned to Morocco, but a number — estimated at 5,000 in August by the Spanish authorities — still remain in the exclave in emergency centers or sleeping rough in makeshift camps while they wait to process asylum applications. Hostility toward migrants has been increasing among local residents of the seven-square-mile city, who are fed up with the situation and feel abandoned by the central government in Madrid.

So far, no arrests have been made in connection with either that assault or Friday’s fire. Regarding the blaze, the police maintain that the leading theory is that it started within the camp itself due to “negligence.” The families deny that this was the cause, although most were inside their tents when the flames broke out and did not see where the fire originated.

Public employee arrested

The Tarajal fire was not the only one in Ceuta early Friday morning. In the Virgen de África Industrial Estate, several cars, a truck, and dumpsters were also set ablaze, and official sources have confirmed to EL PAÍS that one person has already been arrested in connection with the incidents. The suspect is an employee of the public cleaning company Servilimpce.

The worker is accused not only of starting this fire but also of others that occurred throughout the week in Ceuta, in which several dumpsters and various construction and cleaning materials were set ablaze. The suspect has already been brought before a judge.

In addition to the fires at Las Naves del Tarajal and the Virgen de África Industrial Estate, emergency services responded to a third fire near the Díaz-Flor Sports Complex at 4:30 a.m. Several vehicles and a dumpster were set ablaze, and so far no arrests have been made.

The report from the city’s Fire and Rescue Department confirms that the toll from the night stands at 42 burned-down shacks, eight vehicles, and four dumpsters. Early Friday morning, several construction and debris removal trucks arrived at the El Tarajal warehouses to remove the charred remains of the shacks.

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