Spain Seeks EU Assistance to Manage Ceuta Migrant Crisis

POLICY WIRE — Madrid, Spain — The Spanish government has formally requested assistance from the European Union to handle the ongoing migrant crisis in Ceuta. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has appealed to the European Commission for support in processing approximately 5,000 migrants who remain in the North African enclave after a significant influx in July.

Madrid aims to align its immigration and asylum laws with the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was enacted this summer. This alignment will facilitate the rejection of asylum requests and expedite expulsions, in accordance with the demands of more hardline EU member states.

Initially, Spain opposed several aspects of the legislation, advocating for a more comprehensive and humane approach to migration. However, the new measures will introduce harsher policies, although Spanish officials assure that fundamental rights will be upheld.

The migrant crisis in Ceuta remains unresolved, drawing attention to Spain’s management of irregular migration and its efforts to regularize up to 500,000 undocumented migrants residing in the country.

Although the majority of the 80,000 individuals who crossed the border illegally have returned to Morocco, around 5,000 migrants, including an estimated 2,000 minors, still reside in Ceuta. The issue of unaccompanied minors is particularly contentious, as Spain strives to balance strict legal requirements with its obligations to Brussels and Ceuta’s regional authorities to repatriate all illegal entrants.

An attempt to transfer the minors to mainland Spain via an emergency decree has been stalled due to disagreements among the Spanish government, the conservative opposition, and Ceuta’s regional authorities.

The European Commission has emphasized that Spain must carry out returns where there are no legal grounds for individuals to remain in EU territory, while also safeguarding the rights of minors under international conventions.

The draft immigration and asylum bill, approved on Tuesday, extends beyond Ceuta and will implement the broader European Pact on Migration and Asylum, which came into effect on June 12. It will also introduce the EU’s “screening” procedure and affect the Canary Islands, which have experienced an increase in irregular arrivals by boat.

The Spanish government has declared the Ceuta crisis a matter of national security and called for a unified command to manage the response. This decision, made nearly a month after the crisis began, has drawn criticism from the conservative opposition People’s Party (PP). Juan Vivas, president of Ceuta, had been urging the Spanish government to take control of the situation for weeks.

Spain has not provided a comprehensive explanation for the mass influx into Ceuta, attributing it to human traffickers and a social media campaign that allegedly misled young Moroccans and sub-Saharan migrants into believing they could enter the city and automatically claim asylum.

While several ministers have visited the city, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has yet to publicly address the migrant crisis since his visit to Ceuta on July 31, when he declared that Spain’s territorial integrity “had been breached” without blaming Morocco for the influx.

Rabat has criticized Madrid’s mass regularization of migrants earlier this year, stating it sent contradictory signals.

Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)