Spanish police clear Ceuta's Trampolin beach camp before the king's visit

Spanish police cleared a migrant camp on Trampolin beach in Ceuta on Sunday, moving people who had slept there for two months. An interior ministry spokesman told Reuters the migrants were taken to temporary accommodation, where they will be processed or can return to Morocco. Around 3,000 people had been living in tents and makeshift shelters on that beach. The Olive Press, citing the operation on the ground, put the number of officers at about 100, with armoured vehicles, military trucks and Guardia Civil boats, and the start of the sweep before dawn.

The camp is the last large informal settlement on a Ceuta beach. Benitez beach, a short distance away, was cleared earlier in the week. Cleaning teams moved onto Trampolin after the people did. Health officials had already flagged traces of E. coli in the seawater off the site. The enclave has about 80,000 residents. A camp of a few thousand on one beach is a visible share of that population, which is why Saturday's local demonstration asked for the migrants to leave.

The July crossing that filled the beach

More than 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in late July. Most later went back. At least 10,000 remain in the Spanish enclave, on the figures the Spanish government gave Reuters. Interior minister Angel Victor Torres said last week that Trampolin would be cleared by 15 October at the latest. Sunday's operation lands nine days inside that deadline, and nine days before King Felipe and Queen Letizia are due in Ceuta.

The royal visit is set for 13 and 14 October. It is Felipe's first trip to the North African enclaves in a reign that has now run 12 years. The interior ministry's stated reason for the beach sweep, given at the earlier Benitez operation, was a security perimeter around Ceuta's desalination plant. The timing relative to the royal diary is the fact residents and the remaining migrants can both see. A beach cleared for a perimeter and a beach cleared for a king are not separated in the police order published on Sunday.

What processing means in a city of 80,000

Temporary accommodation in Ceuta is not a large system. The enclave has spent two months with tents on the sand because the formal centres filled in July. Moving 3,000 people off one beach in a morning does not create 3,000 beds that were spare the night before. The spokesman said people can go back to Morocco. That option is the pressure valve. It is also the point Morocco and Spain have argued over since the July surge: who holds the people who do not walk back.

Ceuta and Melilla are the two Spanish cities on the African shore. A fence line, photographed for years as the edge of the Schengen area, did not stop the July crossing. The Sunday operation is the administrative reverse of that day: police, trucks, a beach, a count. It does not change the 10,000 who remain somewhere in the enclave, and it does not change the 72,000 who crossed and mostly returned. It changes the photograph the king will see if he is driven along that shore on 13 October.

The open item is the count after processing. If a large share of the 3,000 accept return, the beach closure holds and the 15 October deadline Torres set becomes a completed order. If they do not, the pressure moves from sand to whatever hall the interior ministry has designated, in a city that has already held a march asking for the camp to go. Felipe's first visit in 12 years will land on whichever of those two states is left.