Spain’s sloppy immigration line irritates the EU – Italy and Finland demand Spain be excluded from the Schengen area

In addition to ongoing wildfires, Spain is now reeling from a huge rush of people to its city of Ceuta on the northern edge of Africa.

By Friday morning Ceuta, which has a population of more than 80,000, had been infiltrated in a couple of days by almost 50,000 young people from Morocco, which surrounds the city, the Spanish government estimates.

Most of the arrivals are men, and most have crossed the border by swimming through the sea. At least 18 drowned people have been found, but the latest news reports already speak of more than 30 dead.

The arrival of young people to Ceuta continued on Friday under the eyes of the border police, as they do not want to use force for fear of drowning, and there are not enough facilities or staff.

The border gates were actually open on Friday so that the arrivals could leave Ceuta if they wished. Based on the TV pictures, few left. Thousands were left wandering the streets in idle herds.

Spain wants out of the Schengen area

On Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni demanded that Spain be excluded from the EU’s Schengen area, so that unauthorized immigration does not go through Spain to other EU countries. Finland has agreed to Melon’s demand.

Ceuta and another Spanish city on the edge of Africa, Melilla, are part of the Schengen area. It is still not allowed to move freely from the cities to mainland Spain without a border check.

Those who come to Ceuta without permission cannot therefore directly enter the EU region, but often have to be transported to other parts of Spain when the city’s care facilities are full.

Just recently, the Spanish government also annoyed many EU countries with mass legalization, in which a year-long work and residence permit was distributed to all the so-called “undocumented” living in Spain illegally.

Pedro Sánchez‘s government had estimated the number to be legalized at half a million. In the end, there were as many as 1.4 million people who received permission papers. According to the police, at least 400,000 of them had come to Spain from elsewhere to legalize their status in an EU country.

Border leaks are blamed Sánchez

In Spain, the events in Ceuta are seen especially as a national security issue. Sánchez’s controversial left-wing government is accused of neglecting border control.

In Morocco, Ceuta is widely considered to belong to Morocco, and it is remembered how in the 1970s Morocco seized the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in the so-called “Green March” with population transfer.

The Spanish government ordered the army on the move on Thursday evening and announced that it would close the border between Melilla and Morocco as a precaution.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska flew on Friday to Ceuta, whose city administration had requested help and a state of emergency in a dramatic video message.

According to Grande-Marlaska, “all those who entered without permission will be returned to Morocco”, but police sources consider the task difficult unless the arrivals leave voluntarily.

The Spanish Supreme Court recently ruled that immigrants who came illegally by sea cannot be forcibly returned directly to the country of origin if there is no there were border barriers of the authorities that the newcomers would have had to cross.

Moroccopromised to allow the returns

The Moroccan government, however, promised on Friday to quickly cooperate in the returns.

According to the Moroccan media, the Moroccan government is not behind the youth rush. but “perverted” social media operators who “want to smear Morocco and King Muhammad VI”, whose coronation anniversary was just celebrated on Thursday.

Young people were enticed to go to Ceuta both on TikTok and on Facebook. According to Moroccan media reports, one of the social media sites that incited the attack has been located in Algeria.

According to news reports on Friday, the situation in Ceuta was “completely unsustainable”, and there are no opportunities to feed or house tens of thousands of young people who came without belongings.

There is a fear of looting and violence in the city. Some of the townspeople swear to defend Ceuta’s Spanishness by all means.

The city is multicultural, but cooperation in the city administration works despite the difficulties. It is estimated that nearly half of the population is Muslim.