Spain’s Ceuta faces health crisis as opposition leader calls for quarantine

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of Spain’s main opposition People’s Party (PP), has called on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to impose a quarantine in Ceuta due to what he described as a high “health risk.”

The politician said he had met with representatives of local doctors’ and nurses’ associations, who reported a critical situation in the city’s hospitals. According to Feijóo, healthcare workers have identified more than 450 cases of gastroenteritis, isolated cases of chickenpox, and confirmed that military personnel have already contracted scabies.

“We are talking about infectious diseases. I believe there are sufficient grounds for imposing a quarantine due to the health risk. <...> I propose that the government very carefully examine the possibility of imposing a quarantine,” Europa Press quoted him as saying. “If 10,000 people are wandering the streets <...> without shelter, care or sanitary conditions, it is obvious that there is a clear risk of infectious diseases. In such cases, we must act in accordance with the recommendations of health authorities.”

At the end of July, tens of thousands of irregular migrants managed to reach Ceuta by swimming and on foot, bypassing the breakwater separating the city from Morocco. Amid the crisis, Madrid decided to deploy the military to help maintain security in the city.

Although the overwhelming majority of the migrants are believed to have already returned to Morocco, Spanish authorities estimate that around 5,000 may still remain in the city.

Doctors in Ceuta have warned of a rapid deterioration in the epidemiological situation amid the influx of irregular migrants.

By Jeyhun Aghazada