At least 88 people died during the recent mass influx of migrants into Ceuta from Morocco, Spanish officials said on Monday, though Moroccan officials later presented a lower estimate.
The migration crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta will be the focus of an extraordinary meeting of European Union interior ministers on Tuesday, where Spain will call for a common response from the bloc and respond to criticism from several EU partners, led by Italy and Denmark, following the mass arrival of thousands of migrants from Morocco.
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On the eve of the meeting, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in an interview with TVE that Spain will demand "solidarity from all the member states of the European Union" and warned that those who refuse to offer it "are working against Europe."
The minister stressed that Ceuta and Melilla are not only Spanish borders but also external borders of the Union, so the response must be shared.
Albares was particularly critical of Italy over its attacks on Spain's handling of the crisis and placed that stance within what he described as a "reactionary international" which, in his view, is trying to exploit migration politically to weaken the European project.
The minister insisted that "the integrity of the Schengen area is absolutely guaranteed" and called for an end to the "deliberate confusion" about how the free-movement area works.
Albares also highlighted Morocco's cooperation in containing the flow of migrants towards Ceuta and again thanked the Moroccan authorities for their support since the start of the crisis. At the same time, he condemned the rapid spread of false information about the situation in the autonomous city by certain international actors, whom he accused of fuelling disinformation around the management of the border.
Tensions over biggest migration crisis in decades
The Brussels meeting comes after several days of tension between Madrid and Rome, after proposals by the Italian government to toughen measures against Spain in the wake of the Ceuta crisis, an episode that has reopened the debate on how external borders are managed and on the sharing of responsibilities for migration policy within the EU.
The ministers will examine the consequences of the biggest migration crisis recorded in Ceuta in decades, as well as possible support measures for Spain and the coordination of the European response to future episodes of pressure on the bloc's external borders.
At least 88 people died during the recent mass influx of migrants into Ceuta from Morocco, Spanish officials said on Monday, though Moroccan officials later presented a lower estimate.
Most of the estimated 60,000 people who rushed into Spain's north African territory, most by swimming, have returned to Morocco since the territory's largest mass migrant crossing.
Spanish police and troops patrolled the streets of Ceuta on Sunday as the enclave largely returned to normal after the sudden mass influx between Wednesday and Friday.