Spanish National Police officers and the majority union Jupol are sounding the alarm over a horrific pattern in the North African enclave of Ceuta: illegal Moroccan migrants, including unaccompanied minors and undocumented adults, are kidnapping girls and dragging them into the surrounding mountains to subject them to gang rape.
According to agents on the ground and local residents, the attackers operate with near-impunity around the Temporary Stay Centre for Immigrants (CETI) and the irregular settlements that have taken root on the hillsides.
Victims are overwhelmingly girls and adolescents — some local, but most are Moroccan or Sub-Saharan. The assaults are reportedly happening in the rugged terrain that is hard to police.
Jupol spokeswoman Laura García stated that far more of these attacks occur than ever reach official records. Survivors are too terrified to report. The number of formal complaints already exceeds the number of arrests. “Hoy hay violadores y pederastas sueltos por Ceuta,” García said — today there are rapists and pedophiles loose in Ceuta.
One recent case illustrates the chaos. Last Thursday a minor was subjected to a multiple assault by several Moroccan men on Avenida de Lisboa, one of the city’s main arteries.
Neighbours raised the alarm and only one attacker was caught; the rest fled and remain unidentified. The same day a young Sub-Saharan woman walked into the Superior Police Headquarters to report a similar group attack by Moroccan-origin perpetrators.
Officers say these incidents are not isolated. They are repeating daily.
Hellbound and Down 