The leftist Spanish government is reportedly set to compromise with opposition conservatives and reverse the legal loophole widely attributed as having prompted the invasion of tens of thousands of migrants in the exclave of Ceuta.
Last week, some 60,000 migrants from Morocco flooded into Ceuta, a North African city which has been under the control of the Spanish for centuries and which stands as the only European Union territory on the continent of Africa. The chaotic scenes, described as a literal invasion of the 87,000-strong city, sparked significant domestic and international pushback against the Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which has been left scrambling for answers as to how such an event could happen.
One such answer put forward has been to blame the unprecedented surge on a Supreme Court ruling on June 29 over an Algerian migrant who Spanish authorities attempted to return to Morocco after he swam to the city via the Mediterranean Sea. The court upheld that, despite its short distance, the case should be treated like the arrival of a boat migrant and therefore he could not be immediately returned to the Maghreb Kingdom.
This precedent meant that border officials on the Spanish exclave were likely legally prohibited from preventing the tens of thousands of migrants from simply walking out to sea on the Moroccan side of the border and flooding into Ceuta. The ruling also found that such restrictions on pushbacks would not apply if there were physical borders put in place; however, the government only chose to install a 500-metre floating barrier to separate the sea line between the two territories after last week’s crisis.
Despite attempts by Madrid to downplay the event, with the Palacio de Viana suggesting that “international reactionary forces” had colluded in amplifying the reach of the story, the ABC newspaper reported on Monday that Sánchez’s government is planning on joining with the centre-right People’s Party to pass legislation when the parliament opens in September to close the loophole.
The paper reported that the legislation, which was introduced by the conservatives two weeks prior to the crisis, would allow the government to push back migrants who are detected or intercepted at a “land or maritime border line”, meaning that those who attempt to swim from Morocco to Ceuta would be eligible for immediate rejection rather than being allowed to claim asylum upon reaching Spanish soil.
The Socialist government and the EU leadership in Brussels were quick to try to mitigate fallout throughout the rest of the bloc by claiming that the vast majority of illegals who entered Ceuta last week have been sent back to Morocco.
This came after Italy shut down its visa-free travel Schengen agreement with Spain, and other leading politicians across Europe were advocating for similar measures to prevent migrants from reaching their borders.
However, the president of the self-autonomous city, Juan Jesús Vivas, said on Monday that there are still between 3,000 and 5,000 illegal migrants who entered the territory last week within the city, public broadcaster RTVE reported.
According to broadcaster Telecinco, many such migrants — the majority of whom are said to be Sub-Saharan Africans — were seen rushing charity food trucks on Monday as they wander the city, stranded amid the crackdown.
Vivas claimed that the events of the past week have left the 87,000 citizens of the city with a sense of “anguish, fear, feeling of powerlessness and dread”. On top of the thousands of illegals still within the city, the Ceuta leader said that there are around 3,000 Armed Forces, Civil Guard, and National Police forces who have remained in the city, which he said has impacted the “mood” of the Ceutans. Vivas also revised upward the number of illegals who crossed last week to 80,000 and the number who died in the process to 88.
Populist VOX leader Santiago Abascal has called for the border with Morocco to be “permanently” militarised to protect the territory from future incursions. Abascal has also argued that Prime Minister Sánchez should face trial for failing to protect Spain from last week’s “invasion”.
Meanwhile, 22 member states joined an open letter organised by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Danish leader Mette Frederiksen, which accused the leftist government in Spain of having incentivised the crisis with its mass amnesty scheme, which is set to regularise upwards of 1.3 million illegals this year.
EU interior ministers are set to meet on Tuesday for an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis at the Spanish border. According to reports, Rome will advocate that the EU promptly establish migrant return hubs on African soil to speed up deportations and to reduce pull factors to Europe.
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