Spain has finally requested operational support from Frontex to deal with the aftermath of the migration crisis in Ceuta (see EUROPE 13921/2), Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, confirmed on X on Saturday 29 August.
While Spain requested EU emergency financial assistance last week (see EUROPE 13923/1), until now it had avoided activating the operational arm repeatedly proposed by the Commission.
Madrid notably wants to strengthen the screening and case-processing arrangements for the approximately 5,000 migrants who have remained illegally in the enclave after the mass arrivals at the end of July. According to a diplomatic source, the request would include the deployment of ten additional Frontex officers, as well as a possible extension of Operation Minerva, active in the ports of Ceuta, Algeciras and Tarifa and due to end on 2 September.
Europol and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) are also covered by this request, Mr Brunner specified, adding that the Commission would take a “swift decision” to respond to it.
For its part, Italy announced on Monday 31 August that it was extending by fifteen days temporary checks at its air and maritime borders for travellers arriving from Spain, citing the persistence of “the factors that prompted the reintroduction of checks on 1 August”. In response, Spain likewise extended, for the same duration, its checks on arrivals from Italy - a countermeasure initially launched on 8 August, in a context of high tensions between the two countries (see EUROPE 13922/7). (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)