Spain’s Interior Ministry on Tuesday updated its figures for the unprecedented rush of migrants to Ceuta last week, revising up both the number of people who illegally crossed into its North African enclave and those who drowned trying.
Last week’s surge of irregular migrants into Spain’s north African territory of Ceuta did not “compromise” Europe’s visa-free Schengen travel zone, the Spanish interior minister said on Tuesday.
Fernando Grande-Marlaska added that Spain had already returned to Morocco 70,000 of the 72,000 migrants who reached Ceuta, raising an earlier figure of around 50,000 arrivals.
The unprecedented rush from July 30th claimed 75 lives, the Spanish government’s delegation in Ceuta said, raised from a previous toll of 72.
Many migrants drowned as they tried to swim around a barrier in the Mediterranean Sea in scenes that sparked a diplomatic spat with Spain’s EU partners.
“It is clear that in no way was the Schengen area compromised in this crisis,” Marlaska told reporters in Madrid following emergency talks with EU counterparts.
“We all agreed that the Schengen zone was never in the least danger,” he said, adding that “there was no possibility of any secondary movement” of migrants from Ceuta to continental Europe.
Border passport checks are in force between Ceuta and mainland Spain.
The entry of the migrants sparked tensions with Spain’s EU partners, with Italy and Denmark calling for the country to be suspended from the bloc’s Schengen free-travel area.
Tuesday’s meeting was therefore expected to be tense, but Marlaska said it passed off “in an absolutely constructive tone”.
Around 1,000 “unprotected” minors are among the migrants who remain in Ceuta, according to Save the Children.
The Spanish government announced on Tuesday a package of €25 million ($29 million) to help the authorities in Ceuta provide unaccompanied minors with emergency care.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has defended a more open approach to irregular immigration in contrast with tougher policies promoted by European peers.
This year his government launched a scheme to grant legal status to irregular migrants already living in Spain that is expected to benefit around 500,000 people, mostly Latin Americans.
