Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has said that 72,000 migrants have entered Ceuta since last Thursday, adding that 70,000 of them have already returned to Morocco.
During his appearance, he also stressed that the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) had not warned of the possibility of a migration crisis of this magnitude, in which more than 80 people lost their lives while trying to cross the border. He also said that his European counterparts had backed the Spanish government's actions and acknowledged the "effectiveness" of the response deployed.
Grande-Marlaska spoke after the extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers, held by videoconference on Tuesday at the request of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and backed by 22 member states. At the end of the meeting, EU countries expressed their "strong solidarity" with Spain over the events in Ceuta and pledged to strengthen European early-warning and alert mechanisms for this type of crisis.
The minister described the meeting as "absolutely constructive" and said that the "effective and immediate" response of the Spanish authorities had been acknowledged during the session. However, several of the 22 countries that pushed for the meeting had previously voiced concerns about how risks are managed on Europe's southern border.
