The furious response from the leaders of Italy, Finland and others to the storming by 60,000 migrants of the exclave of Ceuta, which is part of Spain and adjacent to Morocco, demanding Spain’s expulsion from the EU Schengen free movement area, points to Brussels’ preoccupation with migration control. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is one of few EU leaders to show flexibility on migration, partly because it fits with Madrid’s successful economic growth model. ...
The furious response from the leaders of Italy, Finland and others to the storming by 60,000 migrants of the exclave of Ceuta, which is part of Spain and adjacent to Morocco, demanding Spain’s expulsion from the EU Schengen free movement area, points to Brussels’ preoccupation with migration control. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is one of few EU leaders to show flexibility on migration, partly because it fits with Madrid’s successful economic growth model. This year he announced a mass amnesty for illegal migrants who may number some 2 million.
Spain has sent troops to Ceuta but the strength and importance of its relationship with Morocco, and vice versa, deepens the mystery as to why the breach was allowed to take place. Under Sánchez, Madrid has recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.
But the mass border crossing is a diplomatic blow for Rabat, which had succeeded in getting the EU en bloc to recognise its sovereignty over Western Sahara earlier this year. Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen urged Morocco to take ‘the necessary steps’ to control the border, while France has imposed tighter border controls at its frontier with Spain.
New, much stricter, EU rules on asylum seekers and economic migrants have just come into force. They give police sweeping powers of arrest and detention. It is hard to imagine that the Ceuta border crossing will be allowed to happen again.
