Update and correction, November 10, 2026: Workers began removing beds, other furniture and equipment from the Poniente camp on Tuesday morning, El Faro de Ceuta reported from the site, with the tent structures to follow once emptied. An earlier version of this article said the 50 tents had been removed on Sunday. That wording confused the clearance of residents with the physical removal of the structures and has been corrected. The dismantling does not establish how many former residents returned to Morocco.
Spanish police began a second day of clearing a temporary migrant camp at Ceuta’s port on Monday, November 9, moving people to identification and reception facilities as authorities dismantle accommodation opened after the summer influx.
About 450 people were moved during Sunday’s operation, according to local reporting by El Faro de Ceuta and Europa Press. That is a count of people removed from the camp, not a confirmed count of returns to Morocco.
Transfers, not a confirmed new return total
RTVE, citing the police headquarters, reported that officers returned before 7 a.m. on Monday. The stated destinations include other government reception sites and the Temporary Attention Centre for Foreigners, known as CATE, for people whose identities have not yet been properly recorded.
Europa Press reported that people were being taken by bus and police vehicle to the CATE at El Tarajal for administrative checks. Possible subsequent outcomes include voluntary return to Morocco and transfer to other reception resources. The reports do not provide a verified total of people returned to Morocco as a result of Monday’s operation.
El Faro’s on-site account describes separate transport arrangements for adults and minors. It also reports that the rain complicated the operation. These observations do not establish the final destination or immigration decision for each person moved.
Port accommodation being dismantled
The first stage on Sunday cleared residents from the 50 tents operated by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation at the Poniente quay, according to El Faro and Europa Press. Monday’s operation continued the clearance of the port accommodation as part of the government’s plan to close temporary reception spaces opened after the arrivals of July 30 and 31.
This is a new development in the management of the camp, not a new estimate of the total number of people who entered Ceuta or later returned to Morocco. Transfers within Ceuta, voluntary returns and expulsions are different categories and should not be added together or treated as interchangeable.
Editorial note: AI tools assisted research and drafting.
Photo: Access to Ceuta’s port on July 26, 2012, by Khalida via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Resized for display. Archive context image, not a photograph of the camp clearance.
