European ministers held emergency talks on Tuesday, seeking to present a united front after the influx of nearly 72,000 migrants from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta last week.
The talks were “constructive” in tone and member states recognised Madrid's "immediate and efficient" response, Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters on Tuesday.
More than 80 people died during the surge, which began on Thursday. Madrid says 70,000 of the migrants have left, adding that the Schengen agreement does not apply to the exclave, which is on the North African coast.
Brussels had hoped to lower tensions across the continent after the crisis threatened to deepen divisions within the bloc, with European Union Commission president Ursula von der Leyen calling for “united action” within the EU.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez, who is on a three-week summer holiday at his summer residence Costa Teguise in Lanzarote, was told by EU officials that Spain may be put under special measures to address the diplomatic hostilities within the bloc as a result of the crisis, according to The Telegraph.
But those at the meeting said Europe’s interior minister praised Madrid’s handling of the crisis, which the EU’s migration chief Magnus Brunner said was fuelled by criminal smuggling networks and disinformation on social media.
Mr Brunner added that the meeting was a useful chance to confirm that none of the migrants had moved from Ceuta into the Spanish mainland.
French interior minister Laurent Nunez said all states had condemned efforts to use the crisis to divide the bloc, after it fuelled support for anti-immigration and far-right parties and intensified years of disputes over border controls and asylum rules.
Ireland’s migration minister said after the meeting that member states were united and stood ready to support Spain in its efforts to protect external borders from illegal migration.
Before the talks, senior government officials in Italy, which has suspended passport-free Schengen travel arrangements with Spain for a month, said that Rome would call for EU-funded migrant processing centres and return hubs in third countries.
"We, as the European Union, can no longer simply react to emergencies within our borders. Instead, we must act as a united, cohesive bloc to stop departures at their source and return those who have no right to remain on EU territory," Italian interior minister Matteo Piantedosi told his EU colleagues on Tuesday, a copy of his speech released by his office showed.
"Now the time has come to put into practice new hub models for the external processing of asylum procedures and for returns in safe third countries."
In Ceuta, some of the hundreds that remain have established a makeshift camp on a beach in the autonomous Spanish city situated on the North African coast.
They have cited shop closures leading to food shortages, hostility from local residents, and the inability to continue their journey to the Spanish mainland as reasons for their predicament.
Ceuta, along with Spain’s other North African exclave, Melilla, frequently experiences attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe.
Local official Alberto Gaitan said that the city is currently processing 862 migrant minors, who are afforded special legal protections against deportation.
