Spain confronts EU migration hawks in tense Ceuta talks

A group of migrants approach the border post to make their way back to Morocco, escorted by Spanish infantry soldiers, in the Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta, on August 2, 2026. At least 72 people died during the mass influx in recent days of migrants into Spain’s Ceuta enclave, when tens of thousands of people mostly swam around the border post from Morocco, local officials said today. Most of the estimated 60,000 people who rushed into Spain’s north African territory have returned to Morocco since the territory’s largest mass migrant crossing.

(Photo by Henry NICHOLLS / AFP) Spain’s interior minister faced off with hawkish EU counterparts Tuesday in a tense video call to draw lessons from the mass influx of migrants into the North African enclave of Ceuta — which laid bare the bloc’s fault lines on migration. The unprecedented sight of tens of thousands of people streaming into Ceuta from Morocco — dozens died in the attempt and almost all have since departed — left the Spanish government pitted against many of its EU partners. While Spain moved swiftly to send migrants back from Ceuta, the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has backed a more open approach to migration than many EU counterparts — including hardliners like Italy and Denmark.

A hastily arranged videoconference of the bloc’s interior ministers Tuesday offered a chance to seek common ground — but also risked a showdown. A statement issued following more than three hours of talks said member states “were united in expressing strong solidarity with Spain” and commended its “swift and effective efforts” to resolve the crisis. But they also conceded that “communication during moments of crisis” could be “reinforced” and made “more coherent” — a tacit acknowledgement the European response this time around fell short on that front.

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Leading the hardliner pack, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has openly attacked Madrid’s migration policies, specifically a recent push to grant legal status to undocumented migrants already in the country. Both Italy and Denmark last week advocated suspending Spain from the Schengen free-travel area over the Ceuta crisis — a notion firmly rejected by Madrid, and which in any case is legally impossible under EU rules. Tuesday’s meeting was requested both by Sanchez — who wrote to the heads of the EU’s institutions at the weekend to berate the “selfish” stance of fellow member states — and by Madrid’s critics.

Twenty-two countries led by Italy, Denmark, Germany and Hungary sent a letter of their own on the Ceuta crisis, warning against migration “policies that can serve as pull factors” and citing Spanish-style regularisation schemes as a case in point. The EU has significantly tightened its migration rules in recent months, including by allowing member states to send failed asylum seekers to so-called “return hubs” located outside the bloc’s borders.

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