Spain's National Police and Civil Guard launched a large-scale operation at El Trampolín beach in Ceuta on Thursday morning to voluntarily relocate migrants to reception centres set up in army tents.
The government earlier announced it had created the new temporary shelters for some 1,800 illegal migrants in its North African enclave to ease the humanitarian crisis there.
They are among the thousands, including unaccompanied minors, who remain in the territory after about 72,000 people breached Spain’s border with Morocco at the end of July.
Some 70,000 have since returned but the remaining people are struggling to access food, water, shelter and sanitation while the tiny city's resources are overwhelmed.
Many have spent the past three weeks sleeping on the streets or on the beach, with NGOs warning that women and girls are particularly vulnerable.
