Sanchez faces EU backlash over Ceuta migrant crisis

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's migration policies came under sharp criticism from European Union leaders on Tuesday, August 4, as they met following last week's mass arrival of migrants at the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 migrants arrived suddenly in Ceuta on Thursday July 30, and Friday, July 31, triggering a humanitarian crisis and reigniting the immigration debate within the 27-nation bloc, though most of the migrants later returned. 

More than 80 migrants died, including several who drowned or were trampled in a stampede while crossing a breakwater barrier, according to Spanish and Moroccan authorities.

Open letters from 22 EU leaders, and a swift response from Sanchez, exposed a deepening rift within the bloc between migration hawks and the progressive Spanish leader, who has also challenged EU consensus on NATO spending, Gaza and Israel.

Sanchez's government dismissed the criticism as politically motivated, saying most of the migrants were pushed back from Ceuta within hours "in close coordination with the Moroccan authorities and with very little support from other European states."

Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific and Middle East at financial firm Natixis, said the episode reflected wider European disunity at a time when the bloc faces security threats from Moscow, instability with Washington and economic tension with Beijing. "Europe has shown weakness again," she said. "Massive weakness."

According to an open letter signed by leaders of 22 EU countries, from Finland to Malta, a recent Spanish court ruling had triggered "this attack on our migration and asylum system." 

Spain's Supreme Court had ruled that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported without due process, unlike those crossing by land or climbing Ceuta's border fence, since they had not crossed a physical barrier.

Sanchez said the ruling had been deliberately misconstrued by migrant smugglers to persuade thousands of people to swim around the border fence. In his own letter, he noted that Spain had taken in migrants who arrived in eastern European nations from Belarus in 2021 and on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in 2023.

A high-ranking Moroccan diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, said Rabat viewed the situation as a predictable outcome of the court ruling, which he said "sent a clear message to migrants: Come. If you arrive, you'll be protected." He said Ceuta's authorities should have anticipated the outcome.

Spain's Defence Minister Margarita Robles on Monday pressed Rabat to investigate why local authorities had not stopped tens of thousands of migrants from leaving the kingdom. 

The Moroccan diplomat rejected the idea of forcibly blocking departures, saying it "reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the migration phenomenon," adding, "We are not Europe's police."

Gil Arias, who served as deputy executive director of EU border agency Frontex from 2006 to 2016 and previously worked for Spain's interior and migration ministries, said he believed Morocco must have known of, or been complicit in, the movement of such large numbers of people across its border. 

"I have absolutely no doubt," Arias, who retired in 2020, told AP. "This doesn't happen simply due to a passive attitude or omission from Morocco … there was an invitation or it was encouraged."

Many right-wing politicians across the EU have campaigned on tougher migration policies, pointing to the European Migration and Asylum Pact as evidence of a broader crackdown. 

The newer regulations, which replaced a system widely viewed as a failure, have expanded EU capitals' ability to surveil, detain and deport migrants to so-called "safe countries" such as Morocco or to "return hubs" outside the bloc.

Human rights groups have voiced concern that externally hosted deportation centres could evolve into long-term holding facilities for asylum seekers stuck in legal limbo.

 Michele LeVoy, director of the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, said "political games are being played over the lives of people on both sides of the border" in Ceuta, criticising Europe's inaction on the root causes of migration. "We need regular pathways for people to move in safety and dignity," she said.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni issued some of the blunt criticism of Sanchez and announced that Italy would enforce air and sea border controls with Spain. However, Matteo Villa, an analyst at the Italian Institute for Political Studies in Milan, said Ceuta's remote location meant "there was almost zero risk that people (would) really arrive in Spain and then move on to Italy," noting that only about 2 per cent of migrants arriving in Europe reach Italy.

Italy has cited Ceuta in pushing forward a contentious plan, developed in partnership with Albania, to conduct migrant screenings outside the EU. Sanchez responded by calling Meloni's position on Ceuta "contrary to European law, humanitarian law, and the principles of solidarity that bind us together." In a post on social media platform X, Sanchez said Italy had allowed in twice as many migrants as Spain since 2021, citing figures of 234,000 for Spain against 478,000 for Italy.

According to data from Frontex, migration to the EU peaked in 2015 at 1.8 million people, most of whom crossed via the Balkans or the eastern Mediterranean. Crossings have since fallen sharply, dropping 37 per cent in the first half of 2026 to around 49,000 people. Frontex Executive Director Hans Leijtens attributed the decline to "sustained cooperation with our partners in the region."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen initially expressed shock over the Ceuta crisis and called for a tougher EU stance on migration, but sent a letter to Sanchez on Monday praising his handling of the situation. Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta, citing the letter's contents, said, "We need a lessons-learned process to improve our European resilience, preparedness and response," adding that the Ceuta episode showed the need to further strengthen external borders "for example with vigilant monitoring and where needed the use of physical barriers."

(Sourced through PTI)