Spain’s interior minister called for calm on Friday after residents of Ceuta clashed with police during protests against migrants who have remained in the north African enclave after July’s mass crossing.
Tensions have been high in the territory of 80,000 people since at least 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta in a few days in July setting off a Europe-wide migrant alert.
The Spanish government says most have since left the enclave of 18.5 square kilometres (seven square miles) again but thousands remain wandering the streets and sleeping on beaches.
Demonstrations have grown in recent days and some protesters clashed Thursday with police on a beach where migrants have been sleeping. Some of their belongings were burned.
A soldier was injured in a separate incident Thursday when migrants threw stones at troops and 12 Moroccans migrants were arrested. Two more arrests were made when migrants attacked a police officer, sources said.
“Violence is not the answer,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Friday in parliament.
“I call for calm and an end to any form of violence, because … violence is not the way to resolve any problem with the complexity” of that facing Ceuta, he added.
Right-wing and far-right parties have demanded that all the migrants be rounded up and sent back to their home countries.
Grande-Marlaska accused them of “inciting hatred and confrontation” in Ceuta.
READ MORE: ‘We feel abandoned’ – Clashes in Spain’s Ceuta as locals grow tired of migrant crisis
The head of Ceuta’s local government, Juan Vivas, said peaceful protests “to demand the return to normality” were justified, but warned that authorities would take action against anyone who commits acts of vandalism.
“We totally reject the use of any kind of violence,” he said in an institutional address.
“No one can or should take the law into their own hands. The defence of Ceuta and the interests of its people can only be pursued through legality.”
Right-wing and far-right parties have demanded that all the migrants be rounded up and sent back to their home countries.
Grande-Marlaska accused them of “inciting hatred and confrontation” in Ceuta.
The government has warned that each individual must be identified to determine whether they are entitled to asylum or subject to deportation, while unaccompanied migrant children require special protection.
Ceuta and Melilla, another small Spanish territory in North Africa, form Europe’s only land border with Africa.
READ ALSO: Why are Ceuta and Melilla Spanish?
