Ceuta faces sharp crime surge following mass border influx

Crime in the Spanish autonomous city of Ceuta has increased by 60% following the mass influx of migrants at the end of July, compared with August and September last year, the president of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), Lorenzo del Río, said.

Del Río said the TSJA had moved to reinforce the courts in anticipation of a “possible exponential increase in crime” in the autonomous city.

As part of the measures, the judicial staff of Court of Instruction No. 4, which handles cases involving violence against women, has already been doubled.

Asked whether further reinforcement would be necessary, del Río stressed that the “problem” facing Ceuta was no longer primarily judicial but “humanitarian, social, and political,” adding that “in that matter, Justice cannot intervene to resolve it.”

Meanwhile, Andalusia’s chief prosecutor and the prosecutor for Ceuta and Melilla, Ana Tárrago, expressed “solidarity” with “the city of Ceuta, because it is going through a difficult, complex, unbearable situation” following the “massive assault of people at its border” at the end of July.

Tárrago said residents of Ceuta had been dealing with the situation for “more than a month and a half,” stressing that the autonomous city “does not have the capacity to bear this problem.”

She called for “a quick, urgent decision from the Government and international organizations,” while also sending a message of “support” to her “colleagues in Ceuta” and praising their “outstanding work they are doing to defend legality and fundamental rights.”

Tárrago also recalled that she had processed “the reinforcements of three prosecutors and officials” on July 31 and had remained “in permanent contact with the colleagues in Ceuta.”

“I hope they continue to count on me,” she concluded.

By Vafa Guliyeva