Ásia, Deutsche Welle, Inglês – Spain under pressure as Italy suspends Schengen deal

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?”

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.

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.”

The death toll from the border collapse in Spain has been climbing since the incursion started on Thursday, with Spanish officials saying 67 bodies have been found by Saturday morning.

Spanish authorities also pledged to build a new containment barrier along the breakwater fence and into the sea for more security.

Reporting from the scene in Ceuta, DW’s Jan-Philipp Scholz says Spanish police and military were still out in force, and many irregular migrants remain in the Spanish exclave.

“Hundreds of migrants have spent the night on the beaches. Even though 80% to 90% have returned, there are still thousands of migrants in the exclave,” he said.

“The migrants here still complain of hunger and thirst and are trying to get water at the beach showers,” the DW correspondent added. “I’m also still hearing reports of some clashes with locals.” 

We wish you a good Saturday morning from Bonn, with Europe still reeling from the Ceuta border collapse. The Spanish exclave in Africa has seen some 60,000 people rush through the border from Morocco and gain entry to the Spanish city of some 85,000 residents.

While most of the irregular migrants reportedly returned to Morocco by Saturday morning, the incursion sparked alarm over the free-movement Schengen zone, with Italy even suspending the deal with Spain for one month.

Meanwhile, France boosted border checks with Spain while also pledging solidarity and offering assistance to Pedro Sanchez’s government.

The incident has inflamed the already bitter political divide on migration within the EU.

We will be bringing you more on this story, including reports from our reporter in Ceuta, throughout the day.

We are pausing our coverage for now. Join us again on Saturday morning for more coverage of the situation in Ceuta.

Authorities in Ceuta and Madrid are linking the border surge to a recent Spanish Supreme Court related to migration.

The court ruled that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported, unlike those who cross by land or climb the border fence.

According to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, human smugglers misinterpreted the ruling and encouraged people to go to Ceuta in droves.

The misinformation about the Supreme Court’s ruling “spread like wildfire over the past few hours through the networks of human trafficking organizations,” Sanchez said.

He condemned human smugglers, saying they “deceive so many young people and ultimately lead many of them to their deaths,” whether in the ocean or in the city.

Experts say poverty and limited prospects for young Moroccans played a role in this week’s surge.

A quarter of ​Moroccans between the ages of 15 and 24 are not enrolled in education, are not in employment or receiving any work training, official data show.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said that the integrity of the Schengen free-travel area was “guaranteed.”

He made the remark on the social media platform X after Italy announced it was temporarily suspending the Schengen free-travel pact with Spain.

“Practically the entirety of those who entered Ceuta have already returned to Morocco,” Albares said.

Albares explained that individuals are not able to travel from Ceuta or Melilla to mainland Spain without passing through police identification checks.

He said critics of Spain’s handling of the Ceuta situation were spreading “confusion.”

Italy has suspended its Schengen agreement with Spain for one month, in response to the influx of migrants into Ceuta, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Friday.

“The temporary suspension of Schengen with Spain is a necessary decision to protect the security of our citizens and defend Europe’s borders,” Tajani wrote on X.

Italy’s interior ministry told AFP news agency that while Italy had closed its maritime and air entry points to Spain, it cautioned that travel for Spanish and European citizens to Italy would not be impacted.

AFP reported that any checks at air and sea borders with Spain would be “targeted” and concern only non-EU citizens arriving from Spain.

The measure will reportedly remain in force for one month beginning on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said. 

 Tajani said the the temporary measure to suspend Schengen was “provided for by the treaties and, today, rendered unavoidable.” 

Spain’s government said that and estimated that 48,300 migrants had returned to Morocco by 6 p.m. local time (4 p.m UTC) on Friday. The figures would mean that most of the 60,000 migrants estimated to have breached the border into Ceuta have already left.

According to Reuters news agency, several hundred people could be seen voluntarily making their way back to Morocco through border posts and holes in the fence. Some of them reportedly they were unable to find food or shelter in Ceuta.

Moroccan police in riot gear ​used tear gas to ‌disperse some of those were still gathering near the border fences, according to Reuters.

German Interior Alexander Dobrindt said Berlin intends to reinforce and extend checks at Germany’s borders in view of the situation developing in Ceuta.

“We will extend the possibility of internal checks beyond September,” Dobrindt said. 

Germany reintroduced some border checks within the Schengen zone on September 16, 2024, with Berlin citing the need to curb the number of unauthorized entries.

Since then, authorities have been carrying out checks at the borders with Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

The Schengen area is intended to be a zone free of regular border checks.

Despite growing criticism, the measure has been extended three times. It was extended most recently until mid-September 2026.

“The situation in Ceuta highlights the volatile nature of the illegal migration crisis,” Dobrindt said, explaining the latest extension. 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement on social media that “the EU must immediately take all necessary measures and consider all options, including a suspension of Schengen cooperation.”

Frederiksen expressed her rejection of the scenes from Ceuta, saying that her government would not accept a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis.

“Uncontrolled immigration is a threat to Europe. And to Denmark,” she wrote.

Frederiksen said she had spoken with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who also slammed Spain for the crisis in Ceuta, adding that the two leaders planned to discuss the situation. 

The Spanish government’s representative in Ceuta said on Friday evening that authorities had since recovered 57 bodies on the Spanish side of the border.

This increased a previous tally of at least 34 dead. 

It cautioned that further casualties were possible on the Moroccan side. 

Some drowned and others were crushed in a stampede trying to cross a breakwater near a border checkpoint. 

Without singling anyone out by name, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez seemed to issue a response to critics including Italy’s government and right-wing politicians across much of Europe on Friday evening. 

“Solidarity and empathy are optional. Respect for European treaties and data is not,” Sanchez wrote on X. 

He then listed statistics from the EU’s Frontex border enforcement agency on irregular migration between 2021 and 2026. This showed the largest number of arrivals, 478,600, from Italy, with 340,600 from the member states in the Western Balkans, 259,800 from Greece and then 234,760 via Spain. 

“This is not the time to divide. It is the time to continue building a strong and united EU,” Sanchez wrote. 

Frontex data for 2025 specifically also showed the Western Mediterranean crossing route to Spain as a much smaller route for irregular migration than crossings to Italy. However, it was also the only major route listed where Frontex recorded a year-on-year increase rather than a reduction. 

The US State Department issued a statement saying it stood with “the people of Spain, and all Europeans, against this egregious violation of their sovereignty and human rights.” 

It seemed to link developments to a decision months ago by Sanchez’s government to offer and amnesty and temporary residency permits to irregular migrants already living in Spain. That’s despite the fact that no new arrivals in Spain after it came into effect will be eligible to benefit, and Pedro Sanchez citing a different motivating factor.

“This unacceptable incident is the direct result of the Spanish Government’s deliberate efforts to enable and facilitate mass illegal migration into Europe,” the State Department said of its NATO ally. “We are considereing actions to defend Americans at home and abroad from this threat and stand ready to assist other European allies considering similar options.” 

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, seemed to seek to equate the issue to the US border with Mexico and domestic elections in an interview with Fox News. 

“It’s terrible. Remember that picture. That’s going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in,” Fox quoted him as saying. 

Trump and Sanchez’s governemnts have clashed repeatedly in recent months over the war in Iran and relations with Israel, among other issues.

A US Congressional report published at the end of April of this year also raised eyebrows, when it described Ceuta and Melilla as “Spanish-administered cities” located “in Moroccan territory.”