Sebta: 80% of migrants opted for the "voluntary" return

A heavily occupied Sebta, 80% of the migrants evacuated from the El Trampolín camp returned "voluntarily" to Morocco, according to Iberian press. These voluntary returns were made on the first day of the operation and the operation lasted only a few hours. While Spanish security forces carried out the evacuation of the camps on Trampolín beach this weekend, the majority of the migrants present on site chose the path of voluntary return. Among the reasons explaining this self-initiated return, are their situation which does not seem to have an outcome suited to them, the deterioration of their living conditions, and the weather which is beginning to weigh heavily on their daily lives. With the arrival of the autumn season, the temperature drops are felt even more intensely by the beach with the humid sea winds. Sometimes torrential rains, and storms announced by meteorology, have also weighed on the decisions of the migrants who found themselves in conditions that were difficult to tolerate in these makeshift camps. According to El Plural, "900 migrants out of a total of 1,100 returned to the neighboring country last Sunday," which means only 200 people remained in occupied Sebta, at the El Tarajal registration center. The Spanish press agency Efe reported a return of 1,200 migrants on Tuesday, citing local police sources. These voluntary returns took place on the first day and surprised the police forces, according to the same source. It explains that "the national police arrived unexpectedly last Sunday as part of an operation planned since the middle of the previous week," adding that at that time, 2,500 people were on the beach, "but the vast majority of them had left by the end of the day." The media adds that the migrants returned on foot to the El Tarajal crossing point and exited through a gate located to the left of the control post. This gate, normally locked, remained open to allow the migrants to leave the city, without military or police escort before passing control at the Moroccan authorities. On Monday, the evacuation operation of the areas occupied by the migrants continued with the complete dismantling of the Trampolín beach camp. Some migrants took buses for their registration at the Temporary Assistance Center for Foreigners (CATE). In this center, people provide their information in order to begin immigration procedures before being admitted to a reception center, except that their registration has a greater than 90% chance of being concluded by an expulsion procedure, hence the choice of voluntary return. "The situation recalls that observed a few days earlier, when more than 150 migrants present on Benítez beach also chose to return to Morocco," indicated Efe, emphasizing that they recognized that they did not meet the conditions required to request international protection, the only criterion allowing them to be transferred to the reception centers managed by local authorities. "The intervention lasted only a few hours, during which the agents evacuated only about 300 people from the beach, two hundred of whom returned 'voluntarily'," the media highlights. If the vast majority of migrants chose voluntary return, a tiny minority would have taken the road to the mountains to avoid being forcibly relocated, according to the same source cited. However, it is not possible to determine if the direction taken towards the mountains was to stay in Sebta or to leave the place without police escort.