The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has made a delicate balancing act when it comes to aligning numbers, commitments, and deadlines with the immigrants who arrived in Ceuta due to the influxes at the end of July.

He defended the cooperation of Morocco and indicated that efforts are being made to shorten the timelines for the return of immigrants. In his presentation of data, he failed to provide the actual figures for the influxes.

During his visit to Ceuta, he assessed the triage work being carried out at the CATE, the Temporary Immigrant Care Center, located in one of the warehouses at Tarajal.

He left as he arrived, leaving a cloud of data regarding procedures with immigrants, without resolving the conundrum of knowing how many people entered during the influxes of July 30 and 31, as well as the procedures that will be followed to achieve their return to Morocco.

Marlaska emphasized the complexity required within the framework of the regulations under the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, highlighting that more than 105 triages are conducted daily.

"We have already conducted triages for more than 2,500 adults. Regarding minors, just over 1,700 minors have been identified, and it is estimated, based on affiliations prior to July 30, that there were another 700 minors, meaning that the current number is approximately 2,400 minors," he detailed.

"Last week we were able to start the triages for minors, which is also absolutely necessary and crucial to send their files to Morocco in order to promote repatriations and family reunifications for those minors when applicable."

"We could not start earlier because the Autonomous City had not designated the legal representative required for the triages of minors until last week, but you know that the funds for the implementation, the payment of the rights to those legal representatives, are the responsibility of the Government."

"50 triages will be carried out each day in the case of minors, which is another commitment to expedite the process," the minister announced.

For those who entered after July 30, the European Pact on Migration and Asylum applies in full, "because you know that the regulations of the European Union are directly applicable. Therefore, the procedure we are applying for international protection requests is the border procedure, which has a maximum resolution time of 12 weeks: six administrative weeks and six judicial weeks," he indicated.

This is the closest estimate the minister has provided to clarify the time it will take to resolve each of these cases.

Marlaska emphasized the constant contacts with Europe to address "the resolution of the extraordinary crisis we are facing due to the unexpected, exceptional situation, which had never been visualized as possible within the framework of the discussion of the PEMA, the European Pact."

There is a desire to advance a reform to shorten timelines and to make international asylum protection procedures more flexible. "In that regard, next week, on October 1, we will hold a Council of Interior Ministers in Luxembourg, where one of the elements we will study, which will be approved, will be the introduction of the regulation, the famous returns regulation."

Marlaska maintains that there are between 3,000 and 3,500 people on the streets of Ceuta, meaning "not being in the reception resources we have and we are already working on various other possibilities to establish those complementary resources as soon as possible to alleviate the situation."

"In our resources, we also have 500 minors; I believe this has also been mentioned regarding the resources provided by the State Government, 500 minors for whom we are in a position to have the Autonomous City, as the responsible guarantor of minors, take charge. In the meantime, they will be at our disposal in those terms."

For those minors, the primary instrument is family reunification, whenever appropriate. If that family reunification is not feasible due to additional vulnerabilities, exceptional or extraordinary situations, the obligation of any rule-of-law state is to guarantee safety and dignity.

Marlaska insists that all individuals who do not have the right to remain will be returned. That is, those individuals who do not make any request for international protection and are in an irregular situation will have immediate return, the return.

And for those who request international protection, once the procedure is resolved and it is established that they do not have that right to international protection, the resolution for return, the resolution for expulsion will be immediate.

Marlaska insists that efforts are being made to improve upcoming settlements, assessing the real possibilities of reaching a significant number of resolutions.

Next week, “20 new modules will be installed at the CATE of Tarajal, we will bring in more personnel, this is already planned, both from the scientific police, with the aim of biometric records, etc., as well as from immigration, to continue advancing.”

“With Frontex, we already made the request, as you well know, to the European Commission for a reinforcement of the same, and part of it is already materialized, such as the extension of some of the missions we already have approved, like Minerva and Índalo, with the Civil Guard and Police, extended over time. And we have officials in the area both at the helipad and at the port, in order to control the documentation in those parameters.”

Marlaska has emphasized the support from Morocco, avoiding any critical discourse.

He noted that, thanks to the willingness of the neighboring country, the door remains open for voluntary returns, although “people are also being expelled through the same when there is an expulsion agreement, and that is what is important, that is to say, that cooperation, objective coordination is manifested in gestures like these.”

“Morocco is collaborating in an extraordinary way by allowing voluntary returns, facilitating forced returns also through the open door in the Tarajal fence, without having to meet additional and complementary requirements, but with the greatest of facilities,” he insisted.

“And they are also working with us on preventing or exchanging the necessary and precise information to abort any type of irregular entry. For example, in the month of August, there were 174 attempted entries and only 14 succeeded. The rest were rejected by the Moroccan authorities.”

More than 6,500 people have already left voluntarily, “this also implies the cooperation and coordination of Morocco because, as I have said and reiterated, the door is open.”

“However, secondly, these departures are a consequence, in many cases, of the fact that they see that those who do not have the right will not stay, that they will not go to the peninsula. And I want to make this clear, and you know it, more than 178 people in the first weeks were detected leaving for Algeciras, heading to the peninsula, detained in Algeciras, immediately placed in the CIE, and they are already in Morocco.”

“The message is conveyed that those who do not have the right to stay, who are not entitled to international protection, will not remain here. And that, I reiterate, is a reality.”

The entry Marlaska clings to Morocco's collaboration, but avoids giving the real figures of the surges in Ceuta first appeared in El Faro de Ceuta.