The unprecedented influx of migrants who made their way from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa last Thursday and Friday has created tensions between Spain and the European partners most critical of its migration policy. Italy, followed by Denmark, immediately called for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen Area.
The demand has angered Madrid, who requested a videoconference meeting between EU interior ministers to take place on Tuesday.
In recent months, Brussels has already significantly tightened its immigration legislation through the New Pact on Migration and Asylum which, among other measures, allows member states to send rejected asylum seekers to centres outside of the EU’s borders in so-called “return hubs”.
Ceuta 2026 dwarfs 2021 migration crisis
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“From this incident, it is clear that we must do more to further strengthen our borders at critical points,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote Monday in a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez seen by AFP. “The protection of all our external borders is a shared European responsibility,” she warned.
Spain said that “almost all” of some 60,000 people who had crossed the border illegally – mainly young Moroccan men – have since been returned to Morocco.
According to Madrid, at least 72 migrants have lost their lives whilst attempting to come into the enclave last week while Rabat puts the death toll at 11. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) has said there were “nearly 130 victims” with dozens more missing.
FRANCE 24’s Stuart Norval spoke with Camille Le Coz, Director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe about the recent events in Ceuta, and what might be next for the EU’s perennial immigration debate.
FRANCE 24: There’s been lots of incorrect information on this story over the weekend. Would you agree that far-right groups that have been trying to capitalise on these images?
Camille Le Coz: Absolutely. These events are of course unprecedented. There had been crises in Ceuta in the past, but this is the first time that so many people come at once in such a short amount of time. And we’ve seen how these images have been used politically, especially by right wing and far-right wing party across Europe to show that Europe was “under attack”.
Read moreAs Ceuta returns to normal, far right vilifies Spain’s immigration policy
What we’ve seen at the same time is how quickly Spain has responded and how the cooperation with Morocco has led to the return of most of the people who had arrived.
How do you counteract that false narrative then?
This is going to be at the centre of the meeting that will take place tomorrow between all the interior ministries of Europe, because what has also been striking over the weekend is a division within the EU.
While you have one member state that has been facing this exceptional situation, 22 other member states have chosen this time to blame Spain for their regularisation policy but also call for more drastic measures on fighting irregular migration while a lot is already happening between different packages on anti-smuggling, anti-trafficking measures and the implementation of this common EU framework called the New Pact on Migration and Asylum.
Europe to hold meeting Tuesday over Ceuta after migration flux
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So, what I expect to see tomorrow is, on the one hand, some of these member states calling to go even further towards externalising measures such as return hubs and all sorts of set-ups that have been discussed in recent year.
And then Spain arguing for the type of cooperation, the type of partnership that they’ve been implementing with countries like Morocco and that have so far delivered in terms of managing migration.
Italy notably has temporarily even suspended EU Schengen arrangement with Spain. Do you see any justification for that?
It’s pure political theatre because, as has been well-documented, nobody has come from Ceuta to mainland Spain.
And, at a time where the EU is trying to mend from all this past vision towards building this common system, we see some member states using the situation to attack the Spanish government that is, at the moment, quite isolated on the European scene.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
