Ceuta, 67 migrants dead. Sanchez angry with Italy: letter to the EU and today’s news

Meanwhile the arrival of people from Morocco “has completely stopped”according to what was communicated by the Ceuta authorities, specifying that the first hours of today passed “normally” and that no “significant incidents” occurred. At the same time, the return flow towards Morocco continues and out of 50,000 migrants, according to official data, approximately 48,000 have already returned to the Kingdom. Since the beginning of the year, 97 migrants have been found dead in Ceuta: the toll for 2025 was 46 deaths.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has sent a letter to the European institutions to stigmatize the positions of some countries in relation to the Ceuta migration crisis. The newspaper El Pais reports that the prime minister has called for a summit of the interior ministers of the 27 EU countries. Sanchez’s action comes after the measures announced yesterday by Italy, with the suspension of the Schengen agreement with Spain.

Before Rome announced the measure – also taken into consideration by Finland and Denmark, as well as requested by the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic at EU level – Sanchez yesterday published a post calling Italy and other countries into question. “Solidarity and empathy are optional. Respect for European treaties and data, no”, the prime minister began before recalling “the number of irregular entries between 2021 and 2026 according to Frontex: through Italy 478,600, through the Western Balkans 340,600, through Greece: 259,800, through Spain 234,760, through the eastern border 48,000. It is not time to divide. It is time to continue building a strong and united EU.” In the evening, the ‘encore’ from the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares: “Almost all of those who entered Ceuta have already returned to Morocco. It is not possible to move from Ceuta and Melilla to the Peninsula without identifying themselves at a police check.The integrity of the Schengen area is absolutely guaranteed. Enough with the self-interested confusion“.

Italy’s decision on Schengen and the reaction of Spain

Italy has suspended the Schengen agreement with Spain and from today, 1 August, controls have been restored at ports and airports. The stop should last a month but with the possibility of extension if the situation requires it. The news, in reality, will not entail any changes for Italian, Spanish and European citizens traveling to Italy. They will continue, as usual, to land in Italy without any additional bureaucratic steps. The checks will be targeted and will in fact only concern citizens of third countries – outside the EU – coming from Spain: the objective of the checks is to verify their regularity in entering Italy. Nothing changes for those who travel to Spain from Italy.

The Minister of the Interior Piantedosi assured that “there is no friction with the Spanish government. We have expressed our willingness to collaborate together with the entire European Union. The president of the European Commission is adopting specific initiatives together with the other prime ministers to offer Spain help in managing the situation that has been created”.

But different tones were used in the tweets arriving from Madrid. Before Italy launched the measure – also taken into consideration by Finland and Denmark, as well as requested by the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic at EU level – the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez published a post calling Italy and other countries into question. “Solidarity and empathy are optional. Respect for European treaties and data, no”, the prime minister began before recalling “the number of irregular entries between 2021 and 2026 according to Frontex: through Italy 478,600, through the Western Balkans 340,600, through Greece: 259,800, through Spain 234,760, through the eastern border 48,000. It is not time to divide. It is time to continue building a strong and united EU”, urged Sanchez. Hour after hour, the Spanish government updates the number of migrants returning to Morocco: at the end of the day, according to the Iberian Interior Ministry, almost all of the 60,000 who entered Ceuta had left the exclave.