Spanish health minister visits Ceuta, denies healthcare collapse after mass migration from Morocco

Health minister visits Ceuta

Spain's Health Minister Mónica García travelled to Ceuta on Sunday, 16 August, approximately two weeks after a mass entry of immigrants from Morocco into the autonomous city. Sources differ on the scale: eldiario.es reports 70,000 people entered at the end of July, while La Razón puts the figure at more than 80,000. García met with Ceuta president Juan Jesús Vivas and INGESA director Isabel Muñoz to assess the healthcare response. She also planned to visit the Centro de Salud Otero and the Hospital Universitario de Ceuta, meeting with staff representatives and the medical college. The visit came after the Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) demanded on Friday 14 August that the ministry intervene immediately and that García visit the city to see working conditions firsthand.

Healthcare response and figures

Over 15 days, the Ceuta health system treated approximately 5,800 immigrants, with 3,500 seen in primary care and 2,300 in hospital. The first day saw the highest pressure, with between 1,149 and 1,195 attendances depending on the source, before declining to a daily average of about 300. On Saturday 15 August, only 193 patients were treated. Hospital bed capacity was expanded from 175 to 212, and more than 60 additional staff were contracted through 31 August. García noted that the hospital was operating at roughly half capacity. She stated that 101 people were currently admitted, of whom 28 are immigrants. El Confidencial reports 275 available places with 101 occupied, and 191 total admitted patients across all pathologies, with one migrant in the ICU.

No collapse but acknowledged strain

García firmly rejected claims of a healthcare collapse, noting that no professionals were recalled from vacation or redeployed from other areas. She classified the situation as a Level 1 External Catastrophe Plan, which triggered resource reinforcement and separate care circuits for Ceuta residents and immigrants. She acknowledged that certain departments, including emergency, internal medicine, and primary care, were under particular strain, and that primary care had made an extraordinary effort. García also stated that the situation was far from what Spain experienced with the DANA weather event, and therefore no extraordinary effort was being requested from the autonomous communities.

Hay una crisis humanitaria, sí. Hay un riesgo para la salud, sí. Pero no hay un colapso sanitario.

She stated that the most urgent healthcare need was outside the hospital: providing shelter, water, food, and hygiene to immigrants still on the streets. García also pushed back against linking immigration with disease.

Asociar inmigración con enfermedad, es injusto y xenófobo. Los migrantes no traen enfermedades.

Political pressure and next steps

Vivas has called on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to lead a "mando único", arguing that individual ministerial visits without interministerial coordination lack logic and fail to simplify procedures for immediate measures. La Razón reports that the local government views the successive ministerial visits as "pura imagen" (pure image). Medical staff and local authorities have also requested a field hospital to relieve pressure on the city's only hospital, which is managed directly by the Health Ministry through INGESA. Complaints about Ceuta's healthcare predate the 30 July mass entry but have multiplied since. On Monday 17 August, Migration Minister Elma Saiz will visit Ceuta to address the humanitarian crisis, with the local government pressing for the return of all immigrants who entered during the mass crossing.