The unprecedented influx of migrants who crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in North Africa, last Thursday and Friday generated tensions between Spain and the European partners most critical of its migration policy. Italy, followed by Denmark, immediately demanded Spain’s suspension from the Schengen area.
The request irritated Madrid, which called for a videoconference meeting of the European Union (EU) Interior Ministers for this Tuesday, August 4.
In recent months, Brussels has considerably tightened its migration legislation through the New Pact on Migration and Asylum which, among other measures, allows member states to send rejected asylum seekers to centers located outside the community borders, the so-called “return centers.”
“From this incident, it is clear that we must do more to strengthen our borders at critical points,” wrote European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday in a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which AFP obtained.
“The protection of all our external borders is a shared European responsibility,” she warned.
Spain points out that “almost all” of the nearly 60,000 people who crossed the border irregularly, mostly young Moroccans, have already been returned to Morocco.
According to Madrid, at least 72 migrants died while trying to reach the enclave last week, while Rabat estimates 11. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) speaks of “about 130 victims” and dozens missing.
France 24 spoke with Camille Le Coz, director of the think tank Migration Policy Institute Europe, about what happened in Ceuta and the future of the eternal migration debate in the EU.
There was a lot of incorrect information circulating about this issue over the weekend. Do you agree that there were far-right groups trying to capitalize on those images?
Camille Le Coz: Without a doubt. These are, of course, unprecedented events. There have been crises in Ceuta in the past, but this is the first time so many people arrived at the same time and in such a short period. And we saw how those images were used politically, especially by right-wing and far-right parties across Europe, to show that Europe was “under attack.”
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At the same time, we saw how quickly Spain responded and how cooperation with Morocco allowed the return of most of those who had arrived.
How do you counter that false narrative?
That will be the focus of tomorrow’s meeting among all the Interior Ministries of Europe, because another striking thing over the weekend was the division within the EU.
While one member state faced this exceptional situation, 22 others chose this moment to blame Spain for its regularization policy and, moreover, to demand harsher measures against irregular migration, when much is already underway: various packages of measures against trafficking and smuggling of people and the implementation of that common European framework which is the New Pact on Migration and Asylum.
So what is expected is, on one hand, some of those member states asking to go even further towards externalization, with measures like return centers and all kinds of schemes that have been discussed in recent years.
And, on the other, Spain defending the type of cooperation and partnership it has been applying with countries like Morocco and which so far has yielded results in migration management.
Italy even temporarily suspended the Schengen agreement with Spain. Do you see any justification for that?
It is pure political theater because, as is well documented, no one passed from Ceuta to mainland Spain.
And at a time when the EU is trying to move beyond that old logic to build a common system, we see some member states using the situation to attack the Spanish Government, which today is quite isolated on the European scene.
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