Ceuta crisis raises EU frontier concerns

The interior ministers of the 27 European Union member states held a virtual meeting on Tuesday to discuss tightening up internal borders following the scenes at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa over the weekend.

The EU's migration chief said on Tuesday the bloc successfully met a "test" of its border security and "resilience to disinformation" in the handling of a migrant rush into Spain's North African territory of Ceuta.

"These past few days were a test of our European resilience, a test of the security of our external borders," EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner told reporters following Tuesday talks with the bloc's interior ministers.

"Europe, I think, has definitely passed this test."

Member states recognized Madrid's "immediate and efficient" response, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters on Tuesday.

The minister added that Madrid had worked as fast as possible to install a maritime barrier off Ceuta's coast.

As for Schengen Area issue, Marlaska said: "It is clear that in no way was the Schengen Area compromised in this crisis" as the North African enclave is not included in the agreement.

He added that "there was no possibility of any secondary movement" of migrants from Ceuta to continental Europe.

France's interior minister also said on Tuesday that EU ministers had agreed the Schengen Area was "not the problem" after calls to suspend Spain from the bloc following the influx of migrants.

As the meeting unfolded, another migration incident was playing out in the English Channel, underscoring the multiple border pressures Europe is facing.

French and British teams rescued 157 migrants who were trying to cross the English Channel after the engine of their boat caught fire, French maritime authorities said.

Helping hand

EU has offered Spain aid, including emergency financial assistance, to help strengthen the protection of the external border in Ceuta, said Brunner, EU migration chief.

He added that the events in Ceuta last week, when about 70,000 people came over the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave, were fueled by criminal smuggling networks and social media disinformation.

The Euronews website reports that the incident happened after false rumors began to circulate on social media saying that the border was open, with others showing where coast guard patrols were active, and more suggesting places where people could swim across.

Media agencies said there is a specific local angle that goes some way toward explaining the sudden nature and scale of the crisis, however.

The BBC noted that for decades, there has been an unresolved territorial dispute between Morocco and neighboring Algeria over the Western Sahara region, which was previously under Spanish control, making for a diplomatically sensitive three-way relationship in the area.

The broadcaster commented that a similar, smaller influx into Ceuta took place in 2021 after a regional opponent of Morocco was allowed treatment at a Spanish hospital, and that the latest incident came just two weeks after Spain's prime minister paid a visit to Algeria. It also observed that the authorities in Rabat have "already shown readiness to deploy migration pressure as a retaliatory tactic against Spain".

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