SPAIN’S government has apologised to Ceuta’s residents for the migrant crisis inflicted on the country’s North African enclave since late July.
Defence Minister, Margarita Robles, was the first minister to appear before Congress on Tuesday at the start of a series of parliamentary committee hearings over the crisis.
Robles said: “I have witnessed first-hand your feelings of anxiety, of abandonment, of lack of safety.”
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She passed on her apologies to Ceuta residents to those who may have felt abandoned by the government and admitted that ‘they had done something wrong’.
Robles visited Ceuta on August 12 and talked to people who expressed their fear and uncertainty about the consequences of the mass entry of migrants on July 30 and 31.
“Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish; let no one forget it or doubt it,” Robles stated in Congress.
“Any aggression against Ceuta or Melilla is against all of Spain because our sovereignty and territorial integrity are untouchable.”
Ceuta’s mayor Juan Jesus Vivas said at least 100 people had died during July’s mass crossing.
Meanwhile, the government has announced migration reforms to ensure Spain was in alignment with the European Union rules.
Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said the changes would include limiting the amount of time it takes an illegal migrant to undergo medical, biometric and legal evaluations to just three days after their arrival.
The reforms will also create a two-speed system for processing asylum requests, in theory accelerating cases deemed urgent.
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