CEUTA — Spanish authorities completed the evacuation of Guano beach on Sunday by deploying a human chain of 70,000 civil servants, one for every migrant who arrived in July, each assigned a single grain of sand to personally verify before King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia set foot on it on 13 October.
The operation, which began at 8:00 and ended when the last officer confirmed that the beach now contained exactly zero migrants and exactly one royal walkway, was described by the Interior Ministry as «a routine rehearsal for a routine overnight stay.» Officials confirmed that the royal couple will spend the night in Ceuta, and that every resident has been issued a timetable for when to be asleep.
By midday, the enclave had reorganised itself around the visit: the port camp was converted into a grandstand, the CATE registration centre into a cloakroom, and the mountains where migrants previously hid into designated viewing points with assigned seating. Local police now practise walking backwards in front of an empty chair, while the Civil Guard rehearses looking solemnly at the sea for the exact duration of the tribute.
«We are ready,» said a government delegate. «If the King asks for a migrant, we will produce one from the port camp within four minutes. If he asks for a second, we will produce another. We have rehearsed this with stand-ins.»
The royal couple will depart for Melilla the next morning, where authorities have already begun clearing a second beach in case the King wishes to see another one.