Spanish premier Sanchez demanded an urgent meeting of interior ministers of the 27-nation bloc, describing the stance and reaction of some European governments to the Ceuta event as “selfish, polarizing and unlawful.”
"Such an attitude – driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance or political interest – is contrary to European law, humanitarian law, and the principles of solidarity that bind us together,” he said in identical letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Council President Antonio Costa, and Micheal Martin, the prime minister of Ireland, which holds the EU presidency.
More than 50,000 people crossed into the autonomous Spanish city from Morocco on Thursday and Friday this week, with at least 67 people dying in an attempt to cross a breakwater barrier.
The authorities have confirmed the voluntary return of over 48,000 people to Morocco by Friday evening, but it triggered a political crisis for the Sanchez government as some fellow EU countries were found igniting the issue, with their calls to suspend Spain from the Schengen free-movement zone.
Italy was on the forefront by suspending its Schengen arrangement with Spain, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani accusing Madrid of encouraging human trafficking by implementing a plan to legalize the status of more than a million refugees and asylum seekers, a claim his Spanish counterpart described as “partisan populism.”
MNA
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