Ceuta: Spain demands EU meeting, blasts 'selfish' response
Deutsche Welle · LC · trust 52/100
After Italy temporarily suspended the Schengen deal with Spain, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said his county was being "attacked" from within the EU, stressing that Madrid fully restored control over its border. DW has more.
https://p.dw.com/p/5I5Cr Spain has deployed the military to help border police in Ceuta Image: Jan-Philipp Scholz/DW Advertisement Skip next section What you need to know What you need to know Italy's one-month suspension of the free-movement Schengen deal takes effect Spain's Sanchez calls for an urgent teleconference of EU interior ministers Madrid says 67 people died in the Ceuta mass incursion from Morocco DW correspondent says thousands of migrants still in Ceuta Germany's Merz calls on Morocco to take back the irregular migrants 'without delay' Follow this blog for continuing coverage and updates on the developing situation in Ceuta, Spain's North African territory.
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08/01/2026 August 1, 2026 Sanchez: Spain managed to 'fully restore control of the border' In less than 48 hours following the border incursion in Ceuta, the Spanish government has managed to "fully restore control of the border, provide extensive humanitarian aid, repatriate virtually all migrants who crossed irregularly, and prevent any unauthorized movement toward continental Europe," according to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez .
"This has been achieved in close coordination with Moroccan authorities and with very little support from other European states," he added in the letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other top EU officials.
He also pointedly noted that Spain was "one of the European Union's least porous external borders, with a number of irregular entries that is half of that recorded in Italy in recent years (2021–2026), for example."
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The Spanish leader also expressed confidence that a meeting of EU interior ministers would help "establish a common response to situations of this kind and reaffirm that the security of our external borders is a responsibility shared by all member states, and not just by those on the Union's front lines."
08/01/2026 August 1, 2026 Spain's Sanchez decries 'selfish' response by other EU nations The head of Spain's left-leaning government, Pedro Sanchez, demanded a video summit of all European Union interior ministers and slammed what he described as a "selfish" response by some EU members to the Ceuta crisis.
"Most have shown us their support and solidarity and have offered us their assistance. Others, however, have chosen to attack Spain and call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen zone" Sanchez said, in apparent reference to Italy, which temporarily suspended free movement with Spain.
Denmark and Finland also called for reconsidering Spain's participation in the Schengen agreement, while Portugal and France responded by beefing up border security.
"In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarizing and unlawful reaction," Sanchez said in a letter to top EU leaders.
08/01/2026 August 1, 2026 Migrants in Ceuta boarding buses, trains back to Morocco With no means to reach mainland Spain or stay in the African exclave of Ceuta, thousands of migrants were going back into Morocco on Friday and Saturday.
A Moroccan source cited by the French AFP news agency said the migrants would either return by bus or be taken to a train station in Morocco's Tangier, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) away from Ceuta.
"I heard that buses had arrived to take us back home. Honestly, I just want to see my children again. I regret having come all the way here," said 32-year-old Moroccan Rachid Aouchari.
At the same time, some of the migrants in Ceuta told DW they wanted to stay.
"And I want food. I have four days [without food]," one of them said "Nothing, nothing. Just drinking water and no food."
"I don't want to go back to Morocco because I don't have anything in Morocco. Why would I want to go?"
08/01/2026 August 1, 2026 Spain faces diplomatic fallout as France and Italy respond to Ceuta incursion Italy has officially suspended the Schengen agreement with Spain on Saturday for one month in response to the mass crossing in Ceuta.
The Schengen deal allows for free movement between nearly all of the EU 's 27 member states and several others that are not a part of the bloc, such as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. It technically includes Spain’s exclaves such as Ceuta and Melilla, but passengers are still required to pass identity checks before traveling to Europe.
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Even so, many EU nations responded with alarm following the news of thousands of irregular migrants pouring into Ceuta from Morocco.
Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has described the images coming from Ceuta as "shocking." She said the Schengen agreement suspension is an "extraordinary measure" intended to "safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation."
It is unclear how the temporary suspension will be implemented on the ground.
France, which shares a land border with Spain, boosted checks and deployed hundreds of additional law enforcement officers to the border by Saturday. At the same time, France's President Emmanuel Macron pledged solidarity and offered assistance to Spain.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez seemed to hit back at critics online, saying that solidarity and empathy were "optional" but " [r]espect for European treaties… is not."
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