More than 250 migrant women and children in Ceuta may wake up tomorrow with nothing to eat. The volunteers who have kept them fed for weeks say they are at their limit and will leave the makeshift camp in Sidi Embarek without immediate government help. Food is nearly gone, and officials have not responded.
This crisis has been building for weeks. What began as a temporary fix, tents beside a mosque on land loaned by the NGO Luna Blanca, has become a dead end. The Delegación del Gobierno promised to move the women and children to the Centro Ecuestre, known as La Hípica, but relocated only a few. Most remain in worsening conditions. Reports from El Faro de Ceuta and El País say that by early September 2026, some vulnerable women and children had been transferred to new temporary centers, while about 250 women and varying numbers of children remained in Sidi Embarek, depending on the stage of transfers. By late August, Luna Blanca was still preparing about 2,750 meals a day, covering breakfast through dinner, for migrants, down from more than 6,000 meals at the peak of the crisis, Ara reported.
Inside the crowded tents, conditions are grim. Pregnant women and toddlers share cramped spaces, with only a few non-perishable foods and bottles of water left. Hygiene is poor: three portable toilets are the only facilities. Old municipal toilets, never connected to plumbing, now serve as laundry lines. There are no showers or running water, and no sign of relief. National media have reported the lack of water and sanitation, along with chronic overcrowding in these shelters.
