By the end of Sunday, about 900 migrants had returned to Morocco after police removed them from El Trampolín in Ceuta. That was roughly 80% of the 1,100 people taken from the beach on buses escorted by the Policía Nacional. Only around 200 remained at the data registration centre in El Tarajal for the next stage of the administrative process. The figures covered different periods: authorities first confirmed almost 600 voluntary returns on the first day, while EFE later reported more than 1,200 returns after the Sunday and Monday clearances.
The numbers surprised even officers involved in the operation. By 20.30 on the first day, most of the beach was clear, with hardly any police left to watch the area. El País and Europa Press reported that more than 1,100 people were removed on 4 and 5 October. Spain's Minister for Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, coordinated the operation under a unified crisis command.
The second phase began at eight on Monday morning and lasted only a couple of hours. Officers removed about 300 people, around 200 of whom then returned "voluntarily" to Morocco. Others avoided the buses and hid in the mountains. Some carried their bags back to the border on foot as rain and occasional storms moved through the area.
Officials had expected the operation since the middle of the previous week. When the Policía Nacional arrived without warning on Sunday, around 2,500 people were still living on the beach. Other reports put the settlement at between 2,500 and 3,000 people before the clearances. The camp formed after a mass arrival from Morocco at the end of July; some migrants reached the enclave by swimming on 30 and 31 July. Three riot-control vehicles remained at the site during the operation, and the last groups were taken towards El Tarajal.
The operation changed the route as well as the number of departures. Before the beach clearances, about 100 people a day usually returned. Migrants living on the streets walked to the El Tarajal crossing and left through a gate on the left side of the control area. Closed before the crisis, the gate is now kept open for people who choose to leave the city on their own. They are not escorted; at the end of the route, Moroccan police register them and let them enter.
A second route now runs through the beach operation, which the central government manages directly. Officers remove people from settlements beside the sea and put them on buses in groups. The buses stop at El Tarajal, where the Centro de Atención Temporal a Extranjeros records personal details and starts the immigration process before migrants can enter an accommodation resource.
The government planned to clear El Trampolín completely by 15 October. The number of organised accommodation places set a practical limit: if there were not enough spaces, the operation could be suspended. Authorities also planned to identify those taken to the CATE and place them in organised temporary centres. Africanews, citing AFP, reported that thousands still had to sleep on Ceuta's streets or in other informal locations after the settlement was dismantled.
The same crossing has another gate back to Morocco. It is separate from the exit used before and cannot be reached by the press. Police sources say migrants are told they can return without giving their details. They can also stay in Ceuta and enter the CATE to register, beginning a possible expulsion procedure. That is why authorities and police call the returns voluntary. Independent accounts describe a choice between registration and placement, or leaving for Morocco without registering.
Most people still living at El Trampolín are from the Maghreb, and asylum is difficult for them to obtain. A return order is so the most likely outcome at the end of the process.
Police sources say officers explain what opening a return file could mean. Migrants are told their details would enter police databases and that a future re-entry ban could follow. Other sources say they are also told that international protection applications from Moroccan nationals are being rejected. Bans can last three, five or ten years, depending on the seriousness of any offence.
Interior Ministry sources reject any suggestion of pressure and describe the departures as voluntary. They link the rise in returns to the need to start registration and screening while police facilities cannot hold up the flow of people.
Once the border gate became the immediate alternative to entering the CATE and facing an expulsion process, the clearance became a mass return channel alongside the relocation operation. El Trampolín was Ceuta's largest informal settlement, but the wider accommodation problem remained: thousands were still in the city, and the capacity of official centres could restrict further movements. The Red Cross provided food at the beach every day. Thousands still had to sleep on Ceuta's streets or in other informal places after the settlement was dismantled.
