Authorities began on Sunday to remove a migrant camp on the beach of Ceuta, Spain’s enclave in North Africa, ahead of a mid-October visit by Spain’s king and queen, police said.
The camp sprang up in the wake of a July 30-31 influx into the tiny territory of more than 70,000 people from neighbouring Morocco.
Although most of them returned to Morocco within days, thousands remain in Ceuta, sleeping rough in the streets or on the beach.
The sudden inflow, during which scores died, sparked alarm across the European Union and created a political crisis for Madrid.
On Thursday, Spain’s royal palace announced that King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia would visit Ceuta on October 13, on a trip coordinated with the government.
On Sunday, “the first phase of transferring the immigrants started” on Ceuta’s Trampolin beach, a spokeswoman for the enclave’s police told AFP.
She said the operation was being carried out with more than 350 police officers, plus soldiers and armoured vehicles.
Authorities estimate that around 3,000 would-be migrants had been using the camp, for which the Red Cross had been providing daily meals.
Those removed from it were to be taken to a facility for identification and would then be lodged in a temporary camp set up by authorities, the police spokeswoman said.
She added, however, that there might not be room for all of them and the operation on the beach would be suspended “if there are no more available places” in the official camp.
