French minister: after the incident in Ceuta, EU ministers agreed that the Schengen area is not a problem

This was done after calls to suspend Spain’s membership in the Schengen area due to the influx of migrants into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta.

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“We all agreed that the Schengen area was actually not a problem,” said French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez after a meeting with ministers from other EU countries.

Last week, Italy and Denmark spoke in favor of suspending Spain’s membership in this free movement area due to the Ceuta crisis.

Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska emphasized after Tuesday’s meeting that the crisis in Ceuta did not harm the European Schengen area in any way.

“It is clear that the Schengen area was in no way harmed during this crisis,” he said after partners criticized Spain over the protection of the bloc’s external borders.

Passport checks are in place at the border between Ceuta and mainland Spain.

Denmark, after a video conference ministerial meeting, stated it was “very satisfied” with Madrid’s response to the migrant influx in Ceuta.

“I am very pleased that Spain reacted quickly, sending, among other things, police and military forces, and that many migrants have already returned to Morocco,” said Denmark’s Minister of Immigration and Integration Morten Bodskov in a statement.

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F. Grande-Marlaska added that Spain has already returned 70,000 of the 72,000 migrants who arrived in Ceuta last week to Morocco.

According to the government, the unprecedented influx that began on July 30 claimed 72 lives: these people drowned trying to bypass the border barrier in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Tuesday meeting was expected to be tense, but F. Grande-Marlaska said it passed “in an absolutely constructive tone.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defended a more open approach to illegal immigration, contrary to the stricter policies advocated by other European leaders.

This year, his government launched a program granting legal status to illegal migrants already living in Spain. It is expected that this program will benefit about 500,000 people, mostly from Latin America.

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