Ceuta asks Madrid to clear the settlements on the coastline

The government of the Autonomous City of Ceuta has put in writing what had so far remained a matter of local order: on 14 September 2026 the Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Servicios Urbanos y Vivienda formalised to the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) a series of requests to recover the affected areas and protect the coastline, hills and biodiversity. We wrote about this on 13 September, when the picture was still one of settlements shifting towards the beach and the resignation of an official from the government delegation, with no known plan from the authorities.

Today’s request is the first formal act of which there is news. It has three parts. The first is the definitive clearance of the settlements on El Trampolín beach, at Benítez and in the other coastal areas: the city considers them uses incompatible with the Coastal Law, that is, with the state regulation of maritime public land. The second concerns the hills, where Ceuta is asking for coordinated action against the camps. The third is about personnel: the assignment of more SEPRONA officers, the Guardia Civil’s nature protection service.

The choice of addressee is not incidental. Ceuta is not turning to the Ministry of the Interior but to that of the Environment, and the subject is not public order but the deterioration of the coastline. It is a route that runs through state powers over the coast, where the autonomous city cannot act on its own. The basis of the request rests on a report by the city’s Dirección General de Medio Ambiente, which flags — according to the document — “environmental and health risks in various areas of Ceuta” (transl. from Spanish).

The reference framework indicated by the administration itself is the massive entry through the Tarajal border crossing on 30 and 31 July 2026 and the subsequent consolidation of irregular settlements. This is the first time, in the material available today, that the local administration explicitly links those two days at the end of July to a request for state intervention with defined objects.

Left out of the request, as far as today’s sources show, are two things: what becomes of the people living in the settlements after the clearance, and on what timeline. The available material contains no indications on relocation, nor any response from MITECO: at the time of publication there is no stance from the ministry on the request received.

On the origin of the information, it is worth stating clearly how matters stand. Part of the material consulted comes from statements by the Autonomous City and its Consejería, that is, from the party making the request; the rest comes from coverage by the EFE and Europa Press agencies. The content of the request is therefore documented by the administration’s own act, while at present no source describes its receipt or processing on Madrid’s side.

The next step is procedural and measurable: authority over the coastal public domain lies with the state, and the clearance requested for Benítez and El Trampolín cannot be ordered by the autonomous city without an act from the ministry to which the request was addressed.

Sources: Infobae (EFE agency); Ceuta Actualidad (statement by Ceuta’s Consejería de Medio Ambiente); El Pueblo de Ceuta (statement by the Autonomous City of Ceuta); The Objective (Europa Press agency).