In the wake of thousands of migrants crossing into the Spanish city of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco, alarm bells rang in España and Italy.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, despite intensifying pressure to announce a national emergency, has deployed the military to curb the chaos at the border.
The palpable tensions reignited the lightning-rod issue of migration policy in Europe.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, for example, wrote a post on X criticizing Madrid’s migration policies, which, he said, are threatening the European Union’s border security.
The move came as Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for restrictions on Spain’s participation in the Schengen free-travel area, arguing that Madrid’s migration policies were undermining the European Union’s external borders.
Tajani said he was “in favour of closing the Schengen area with Spain”, adding that “irregular and uncontrolled immigration poses a threat to national security.”
“The images coming out of Ceuta show that the Madrid government’s decision to grant Spanish – and therefore European – citizenship to over 500,000 irregular migrants is profoundly misguided and encourages human trafficking,” he noted.
In constant touch with the Spanish authorities, the European Commissioner for Migration, Austria’s Magnus Brunner, said it was “a crucial part of our efforts to fight illegal migration”.
The latest chaotic crossing recalled the 2021 migration crisis when nearly 10,000 people entered Ceuta in two days.
