During a visit to the exclave last week, however, Attorney General Teresa Peramato confirmed that authorities had detected an increase in criminal assaults and crimes against private property over the past month.
And on Monday, Ceuta’s Public Prosecutor’s Office said it was investigating 22 alleged sexual assaults targeting migrant women and girls, as well as an additional case involving a man belonging to the LGBTQ+ community.
“Many women have been raped,” said Helena Maleno, spokesperson for migrant rights NGO Caminando Fronteras. She added that the true number could be higher than the figure confirmed by Spanish officials, as migrant women may not know how to report sexual assaults or trust authorities enough to do so.
Aid groups are increasingly caught in the middle of the violence.
Nolte Bauer, an activist with Mission Lifeline, a German NGO that works with migrants and internally displaced people, said he had received death threats. He added that unidentified people had attempted to slash the wheels of his truck, from which migrants can charge their phones for free. Protesters have also tried to stop Red Cross vehicles from distributing food to migrants.
“I understand that the current situation is stressful for local residents, and I understand that they are protesting,” Bauer said. “But threatening people with death, hunting people down and setting camps on fire — that crosses a line.”