Spanish Health Minister Mónica García on Sunday denied the collapse of Ceuta’s healthcare system following the recent migrant invasion of the city — attributing such claims to alleged “xenophobic” messages linking illegals with disease.
The Minister’s statements denying the existence of a healthcare crisis in the Spanish exclave stand in contrast with testimonies from local workers who have repeatedly warned over the past days that the recent mass migrant invasion has dramatically impacted Ceuta’s health services, pushing them far beyond its normal operational capacities.
Minister García visited the Ceuta over the weekend, making her the latest top Spanish government official to visit the exclave after tens of thousands of illegal migrants swarmed into the city. El Faro de Ceuta reports that after meeting with local authorities, García held a press conference in which she described the situation as an “exceptional humanitarian crisis.”
Illegal migrants receive free food and health care from the NGO’s in El Trampolin Beach on August 14, 2026 in Ceuta, Spain. ( Adri Salido/Getty)
The Minister said that although the city’s healthcare services are “stressed” she denied its collapse — attributing such claims to purported “xenophobic” messages against migration. She reportedly detailed that there are at least two confirmed cases of tuberculosis among the migrants and 18 possible additional cases among minors.
“Right now, linking immigration to disease, I’m sorry, but that’s unfair and xenophobic,” García said. “Linking immigration to crime and danger is unfair and xenophobic.”
“Migrants don’t bring diseases. Migrants may fall ill due to unsanitary conditions, but they don’t bring diseases,” she continued.
According to El Faro de Ceuta, García was booed and yelled by local residents and healthcare workers who rejected the Minister’s comments.
Hours before the Minister García’s visit to the Spanish exclave, the president of Ceuta’s College of Physicians Enrique Roviralta emphatically reiterated during a radio interview that the city’s healthcare is presently “just as overwhelmed” as it was at the time of the invasion in late July.
Roviralta affirmed that there has been an increasing amount of cases of stab wounds and broken noses around Ceuta, as well was cases of scabies and talks of possible tuberculosis and other infectious conditions. Most shockingly, Roviralta emphasized that doctors have treated cases of sexual assault on minors. A rise in mental health crisis has also been documented by the Ceuta College of Physicians, with locals reporting that they now live in fear in their own homes.
Furthermore, Roviralta stressed that the thousands of migrants currently living in squalor through Ceuta’s streets, beaches, and makeshift caps have led to a potential “epidemiological time bomb,” as local healthcare professionals have no details on the migrants’ health status.
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Two healthcare professionals claimed to Ok Diario that the city’s healthcare services are collapsed, refuting the Minister’s claims. The professionals reportedly denounced that a special emergencies unit at the University Hospital of Ceuta, which had not been opened for the locals before, was allegedly opened by the Spanish government for the migrant crisis. The unit, one of the doctors claimed, “is full of patients with fever.”
“She [García], being a doctor, should have honored the oath she took and come in on the first day to put on her gloves, because we’ve seen it all here. I myself have seen patients with syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis,” Yaumara Socorras, a doctor working at the University Hospital of Ceuta’s emergency room, told Ok Diario.
“There are many patients with fevers whose conditions we don’t know because we’re waiting for test results,” she continued.
Similarly, Buyemaa Abdeselam, another emergency room doctor at the hospital, claimed to Ok Diario, “there is an infectious outbreak, and one patient died with symptoms of typhoid fever.”
“We are experiencing a clear collapse. Many arrived nearly suffocating, with injuries, trauma, and infections,” he said. “It was a scene straight out of hell.”