Ceuta Confronts Capacity Gap: 2,383 Registered Minors Versus 29 Ordinary Shelter Places

Ceuta's government acknowledged an acute administrative problem: 2,383 unaccompanied foreign minors are now registered in the city (up from 2,321 on Sep 22), against an ordinary shelter capacity of just 29 places built for pre-crisis caseloads. Around 40 minors already have return procedures to Morocco underway, and 5 girls were separately transferred to Navarra, on top of the 54 minors reunified with mainland family members since Aug 1. Ceuta president Juan Jesús Vivas, previously resistant to mainland transfers, conceded for the first time that minors who cannot be returned to Morocco 'will have to be cared for according to Spanish legislation,' while proposing family regrouping in Morocco and EU-funded guardianship structures as alternatives to blanket mainland relocation. Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres countered that minors should be placed in reception facilities before return procedures are initiated, not held on the streets while paperwork proceeds.