Ceuta is facing renewed migration pressure after around 80,000 people crossed into the city at the end of July. At the Loma Margarita emergency camp, authorities have erected large olive-green tents on military land, with space for up to 1,100 people, most of them young men from the Sahel. The camp provides basic shelter and meals to many arrivals after months of hardship.
Inside the camps, daily life is shaped by the dangers people have left behind. Many of the young men escaped armed conflict in Mali, fled jihadist groups in Niger or left Burkina Faso after armed gangs destroyed crops to starve local populations. Others, like Abdallah from Sudan, say returning home would mean being forced into armed groups. Some bear visible scars, including untreated wounds. Others hold on to the hope of reuniting with relatives already in Spain.
The Spanish government has begun triaging arrivals to determine who qualifies for asylum, amid logistical and legal challenges. Accem, the NGO managing the situation for the Ministry, says police have started interviewing people to identify those eligible for protection. In the first stage, women and girls were separated for safety, sub-Saharan migrants were placed in dedicated facilities, and Moroccans were assigned separate locations. But these categories do not fit everyone: some Algerian couples have chosen to sleep on the beach instead of in the camps.
Most residents of Loma Margarita are men aged 18 to 35, many of whom had been waiting in northern Morocco for a chance to cross into Spain. The camp allows free movement, although access is restricted during meal times to maintain order. On the city’s beaches, others, including Mohamed Camara from Guinea-Conakry, wait for food distribution. Camara says friends back home were forced to work in gold mines. Police have begun registering the names of people waiting there to start their asylum procedures.
The Sahel is a semi-arid belt stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. It includes Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Sudan, and is home to 400 million people. The region has become a major source of asylum requests in Spain. Last year, Spain approved more than 75,000 cases involving international protection and humanitarian status. Applications from the Sahel led the list, and nearly all were recognized. The government initially promised to return all irregular entrants, but its legal duty to process asylum claims and handle unaccompanied minors has made that impossible in practice.
Along the road to the Centro de Estancia Temporal de Inmigrantes (CETI), young men from Mali and other countries spend their days waiting, with some supporting each other through the uncertainty. For some, like Omar and Ahmed, the threat of violence and persecution at home combines with their personal circumstances, making return unthinkable. Ceuta remains tense as the city adjusts to migrants’ ongoing presence and slow administrative procedures. As recent reports on Ceuta's migration crisis have noted, the influx continues to reshape daily life for residents and newcomers alike.
Spain’s approach to migration from the Sahel reflects wider European challenges. The CETI system is designed for temporary stays, but prolonged processing times and the scale of arrivals have strained resources. The legal structure requires authorities to assess each asylum claim individually, often leaving people waiting for months. For many migrants, the hope of legal status and safety in Spain is tempered by uncertainty about the process and life in temporary camps. In Ceuta, humanitarian needs meet administrative demands every day at Europe’s southern border.
