Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has requested an urgent meeting of EU interior ministers after accusing some member states of a “selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction” to the mass border crossing into Ceuta.
More than 50,000 people entered the Spanish enclave from Morocco on Thursday and Friday. At least 67 died in the attempt, some drowning and others crushed as they tried to cross a breakwater barrier. By 6pm Friday, more than 48,000 people had voluntarily returned to Morocco, but the influx has triggered a political crisis for Madrid and prompted calls from some EU countries for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen free-movement zone.
Political backlash
Sánchez said “virtually all” of those who had crossed had been returned, “preventing any unauthorised onward movement towards continental Europe”.
Juan Jesús Vivas, the president of Ceuta, said not all those who had crossed had left. “We’re not back to normal because there are several thousand people who need to be returned, and there is still an atmosphere marked by unease and concern,” he said. He also called for “all the security measures deployed” in Ceuta to remain in place to guarantee the safety of the population.
Italy’s move
Italy announced on Friday evening that it would suspend its Schengen arrangements with Spain for a month, even though Ceuta – and Spain’s other north African enclave, Melilla – are subject to special Schengen rules that prevent onward movement within the zone. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, blamed the situation on the Spanish government’s decision to offer a now-closed scheme to regularise the status of more than 1 million undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, saying the programme had incentivised human trafficking and was “profoundly wrong”.
Sánchez was forthright in a letter sent to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Council president, António Costa, and Micheál Martin, the prime minister of Ireland, which holds the EU presidency. He said that while most EU countries had expressed support and solidarity, others had chosen to attack Spain. “Such an attitude – driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance or political interest – is … contrary to European law, humanitarian law and the principles of solidarity that bind us together,” he wrote.
In a pointed rebuke to Italy, he noted that Spain was, “according to Frontex, one of the least porous external borders of the European Union, with a number of irregular entries that is half that recorded, for example, in Italy in recent years (2021–26)”.
EU responds
Senior EU officials were due to meet on Saturday in a “political crisis response team” convened by Ireland’s presidency. Ireland’s justice minister, Jim O’Callaghan, who is leading the meeting on behalf of the EU, said he had been in touch with Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to express his solidarity and support. “I will remain in close contact with the Spanish government, member states and the EU institutions as the situation evolves,” he said on Friday night.
In remarks that appeared to respond to Sánchez’s criticisms, von der Leyen said she welcomed his suggestion of a video conference “to take stock of what has happened”, adding: “Fighting illegal migration requires solidarity and a united European response.” France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said his country would not be seeking Spain’s suspension from Schengen rules. “It’s absolutely not on the table,” he said on Saturday. “We have great cooperation with Spain.”
Situation on the ground
Many of the remaining people who crossed into Ceuta returned to Morocco on Saturday morning amid a reinforced Spanish police and military presence. Souleil Boyan, a 19-year-old from Senegal, told Agence France-Presse outside a migrant centre where dozens of other people from sub-Saharan Africa were waiting: “We hope to go to Europe to work and earn a living – that’s it.” He added: “We all know that in Africa there isn’t much opportunity.”
The Spanish government said in a statement on Saturday that the situation in Ceuta remained calm and quiet. It said containment barriers were being installed at the Tarajal beach breakwater, including a 500-metre-long inflatable barrier and a line of anchored buoys.
Historical context
This week’s mass crossing dwarfs the last similar event in May 2021, when Morocco loosened its border controls, allowing about 10,000 people to enter the territory over two days. That crossing came amid heightened tensions between Madrid and Rabat over Spain’s decision to allow the leader of the Western Sahara independence movement, the Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in Spain. Morocco and the Polisario Front both lay claim to Western Sahara, which was under Spanish rule until 1975, when colonial authorities handed the territory to Morocco and Mauritania.
That diplomatic crisis ended in 2022 when Madrid reversed its longstanding policy of neutrality and backed Morocco’s plan for Western Sahara, a move that caused a rift between Spain and Algeria, which had supported the Polisario group. Sánchez visited Algiers on 20 July – the first visit by a Spanish head of government in four years – marking a thaw in relations with Algeria.
Explanations questioned
The Spanish government has attributed the latest influx to “human-trafficking mafias” that have taken advantage of a decision by Spain’s supreme court, which recently ruled that those intercepted at sea while trying to enter Ceuta or Melilla could not be summarily returned under special rules. But some migration experts have expressed doubts about that explanation.
Mauricio Valiente, the director general of the Spanish Refugee Aid Commission, said the route into Ceuta was very different from the Atlantic route from Africa to the Canary Islands. “Unlike what happens in the Canary Islands, these aren’t people who have to get into a small boat,” he told elDiario.es. “This is a matter of being just metres from a land border, jumping into the sea and trying to get around a breakwater, which makes it much easier to do, even with all the risks.”
Valiente said there had been a steady increase in arrivals to Ceuta this year, even before the supreme court ruling. “The causes are complex, and there are surely many reasons. But to simplify it by referencing the court ruling or organised crime – to say there’s a direct cause-and-effect relationship – is completely unfounded.”
