Nearly a month after the mass arrival of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Spain has asked the European Commission to release emergency funds.
“We received the formal request for emergency funds yesterday and are now evaluating it as a matter of priority,” said Markus Lammert, Commission spokesperson for Home Affairs and Migration. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez meanwhile convened the National Security Council to address the situation.
From day one, the European Commission has pushed for support for Spain, including through various European agencies. Only now has Madrid accepted a helping hand “to increase the EU’s participation in the defense of Ceuta through Frontex and other community mechanisms”, as Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles stated in a Council hearing.
Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner “is in regular contact with the Spanish authorities to facilitate solutions, addressing the challenges on the ground”, while Mediterranean Commissioner Dubravka Šuica also maintains “close contact with the Moroccan authorities”, Mr Lammert explained.
You might be interested
Frontex’s role
Even before the crisis, Frontex was already present in Ceuta. It has been providing assistance to national authorities with border controls at the port. However, as spokesperson Krzysztof Borowski explained to EU Perspectives, the EU agents “were not directly involved in the events involving the migrants, as these occurred at the border, outside the scope of the agency’s activities”.
With Spain’s formal request for assistance from the EU, Frontex will now take on a leading role. Concrete assistance from the EU should come from drawing on resources from the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF), which is set up for the period 2021–2027 with a total of €10.94 billion. This is one of the different types of emergency assistance under the Home Affairs Funds.
In Spain, two Emergency Assistance (EMAS) projects funded by AMIF were already set up in 2023 to ensure better reception and registration of migrants: to provide humanitarian assistance and to involve the distribution of technical equipment allowing the identification of irregular migrants arriving by sea.
This time, “the amount and exact funding will be decided when the assessment is finalised”, said an EU source familiar with the matter to EU Perspectives. Frontex will not know about its own operations until the Commission unblocks the funds — “with a view to a rapid decision” as Mr Lammert said.
National security vs. European security
In Ceuta, the mass arrival of thousands of people from Morocco has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Over 100 people drowned. Thousands of migrants were left for days on the streets and beaches of the autonomous city without shelter or access to food or water.
In Spain, the National Security Council met, at the Prime Minister’s initiative, to comprehensively coordinate state resources to address the civil, health, and economic threats that have emerged over the past month and to protect the population of Ceuta and the migrants themselves.
At the hearing, Minister Robles commemorated the victims, expressing “grief and solidarity”. She also apologised to the citizens of Ceuta who felt “abandoned or insufficiently supported”, assuring them that they will not be so in the future.
Among the measures planned are new physical barriers and border reporting systems, as well as greater involvement of Frontex. However, the EU reassures that the situation in Ceuta “is now different than it was at the beginning of the month: new attempts have been successfully prevented thanks to the good cooperation between the Spanish and Moroccan authorities”, Mr Lammert concluded.
