Migrant influx adds to Europe's woes

Several European nations will push for a stronger border between the European Union and the world at a special meeting on Tuesday.

The talks were hastily arranged after more than 50,000 migrants swept over and around the border separating the North African Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Thursday.

At least 72 people died during the mass influx, local officials said on Sunday. Most of the people who rushed into Spain's North African territory have returned to Morocco since the territory's largest mass migrant crossing.

"The latest figure that we have is 72," the government's delegate to Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez Triano, told reporters, when asked about the number of fatalities.

Spain said on Friday it had escorted almost all of the migrants who entered Ceuta back over the border, but the sudden arrival of so many people demanding asylum and entry into the bloc led Italy to immediately suspend its participation in the EU's border-free travel area, known as the Schengen zone, a move Denmark and Finland supported.

The influx triggered a joint statement from 22 of the EU's 27 member states, calling on the bloc to strengthen its external borders and not allow weaknesses to "create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible" because it would "encourage further attempts, undermine confidence in our common migration policy and have repercussions for all member states".

Spain responded to the criticism from fellow EU countries by saying most of the migrants who illegally entered Ceuta had headed back, and that nations that criticized its border enforcement in Ceuta had been "selfish, polarizing, and unlawful".

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen saying his country had quickly secured its border and prevented any "unauthorized onward movement toward continental Europe".

Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spain's interior minister, said on Saturday the situation in Ceuta was almost back to normal.

"Almost all of (the migrants) have already left Ceuta," he said.

Tuesday's emergency talks are likely to be both a debriefing about what happened and a look at how to stop it happening again. And they will also likely include debate about the EU's Schengen Area.

The border-free travel zone that encompasses more than 450 million people and 29 countries in Europe means there is no need for checks at the borders between nations for people who are already within its external border.

Critics say it acts as a magnet for people who know they only need to crack one external border at its weakest point to have full access to the European continent.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she wants the EU to look at all options, "including a suspension of Schengen cooperation".

Migrants who returned to Morocco on the weekend said hunger, exhaustion, and the lack of a warm welcome were their reasons for giving up on the idea of relocating to mainland Europe.

A waiter from Morocco told Reuters local people in the enclave had closed all the stores and made it clear they were not welcome: "They imposed a siege to force us to leave Ceuta by ourselves … They succeeded in their plan."