Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has demanded an emergency meeting of European Union interior ministers and sharply criticized the response of some EU governments to the migrant surge that overwhelmed the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. In a letter to the bloc’s leadership, Sánchez took issue with Italy’s decision to restore temporary border controls with Spain, saying Europe could not afford what he called a selfish, polarizing and unlawful reaction.
The letter was addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, whose government currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. Sánchez asked the interior ministers of all 27 member states to hold a formal meeting to address the situation. The Schengen Area normally allows passport-free travel across much of Europe, but Italy had announced that it was temporarily reintroducing checks on the border with Spain.
«In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction,» Sánchez wrote in the letter. He acknowledged that most European governments had offered support, but said others «have chosen to attack Spain and to call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen Area.» Such an attitude, he argued, was driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance or political interest and ran against European law, humanitarian law and the principles of solidarity binding the bloc together.
The Spanish leader, who heads the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, defended his government’s handling of the crisis. He said almost all the migrants who crossed into Ceuta had already been returned to Morocco and noted that Ceuta is not part of the Schengen Area. He also pointed to Frontex data suggesting that Spain has one of the least porous external borders of the EU, with irregular entries running at half the level recorded in Italy in recent years.
The dispute follows a mass rush of migrants from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish territory on the North African coast that shares a land border with Morocco. Spanish local and national authorities estimated that 50,000 to 60,000 people crossed into the territory during the surge. Ceuta’s regional president, Juan Jesús Vivas, said the number represented about 70 percent of Ceuta’s population. At least 67 people were killed in the border rush.
Spain’s interior ministry said about 50,000 people had entered Ceuta since Thursday and that 48,300 had returned to Morocco by Friday evening, with hundreds more following each hour. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said none of the migrants reached mainland Spain or the rest of the EU, crediting the work of Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement for the rapid returns.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a conservative, defended her government’s move to tighten border controls. She said the images from Ceuta showed how urgent it was for Europe to respond to irregular immigration, and she announced that Italy and Denmark had promoted a letter signed by 22 EU member states calling for stronger external borders, more effective returns and tougher action against human traffickers. «Defending the external borders of the Union is not the interest of a single nation. It is a shared responsibility of Europe,» Meloni wrote.
Ireland’s justice minister, Jim O’Callaghan, will convene a meeting of the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Council as part of Ireland’s EU presidency, Micheál Martin announced. Spain also said it planned to install a 500-meter barrier in the sea near Ceuta to prevent future attempts to enter its territory.
