Spanish National Police began dismantling the migrant camp in the expansion area of the Port of Ceuta early on Sunday, 8 November, after the first expulsion orders were issued for the people living there.

The operation started at around 6.30am, according to El Faro de Ceuta, citing police sources, and no incidents had been reported in its early hours. A large police deployment kept the perimeter of the camp cordoned off while the work went ahead.

The camp sits next to an educational centre, and the authorities chose a Sunday for the operation so that it would not coincide with the school day. The site is in an area of the port whose urban development was scheduled for the coming months.

The people in the camp arrived in Ceuta on 30 and 31 July, during the mass crossing from Morocco that summer, when reports at the time put the number entering the enclave at more than 70,000. Police sources said the legal time limits for those residents to apply for asylum in Spain had expired and their applications had been rejected, which is why expulsions are now being carried out.

Residents were taken first to the CATE reception centre at El Tarajal for identification ahead of their return to Morocco, and were also to be moved to the CETI centre in the city. It was not yet clear whether the whole camp would be dismantled, as that depends on how many places are available at other reception points in Ceuta.

Spain's Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, had warned earlier in the week that some of the temporary centres in Ceuta would start to be dismantled in the coming days. Reports put the temporary centres' authorised capacity at more than 7,000 places, with about 5,800 people registered there.