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Background

Ceuta, Schengen and the EU migration pact

Spain has checked identity and documents on the sea and air links out of Ceuta ever since it joined Schengen, and the Commission says nobody who got in reached mainland Spain or another member state. Italy answered the crossings with a month of checks on non-EU travellers arriving from Spain, and Spain answered back with checks on travellers from Italy until 7 September. Eight Schengen states had internal border controls notified when the Commission's register was read on 9 August.

72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July 2026, and Spain says all but 2,000 were back by 4 August. Spain put the dead at 80, rights groups at least 141. Italy answered with a month of checks on non-EU travellers from Spain.
Ceuta, Schengen and the EU migration pact

Schengen is the area where 29 European states have abolished checks at their shared borders. Ceuta, a Spanish city on the Moroccan coast, is EU territory, but leaving it is not movement inside that area. In a declaration attached to its 1991 Schengen accession, Spain undertook to maintain identity and document checks on the sea and air connections out of Ceuta and Melilla, including those to the mainland. Article 41 of the Schengen Borders Code leaves those rules untouched.

On 30 and 31 July 2026, 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, on official Spanish figures. A rumour that the border had opened had spread online beforehand. Spain said on 4 August that all but 2,000 had gone back to Morocco, and on 1 August its authorities said they were leaving voluntarily. The Spanish death toll rose: at least 67 on 1 August, at least 72 on 4 August, 80 by 7 August. Moroccan and European rights groups said on 7 August they had recorded at least 141 deaths.

A state may put controls back at its internal borders. Article 25 lists the grounds, among them sudden large-scale unauthorised movements of non-EU nationals between member states. An unforeseeable threat buys one month, three at most; a foreseeable one buys six months, renewable to two years. The state decides and notifies the others, and the Commission can answer only with an opinion. Only the Council, on a Commission proposal, can recommend controls against a state with serious deficiencies at its external border.

Italy notified controls from 1 August to 1 September on non-EU travellers arriving from Spain at its internal air and sea borders, citing the entries at Ceuta and a risk of onward movement. EU citizens are not affected. Spain's interior ministry answered on 7 August with checks on travellers arriving from Italy, running until 7 September. Spain's foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, called the Italian measure a torpedo fired at the hull of European unity. Rome said it would not revisit its decision before 15 August.

The Commission's register listed internal border controls in eight states on 9 August 2026, Italy's among them. In June 2026 it asked the nine states whose controls had run past twelve months to phase them out. Al Jazeera reported that the guidance appeared to have little practical effect. The pact's asylum procedure regulation has applied since 12 June 2026, seven weeks before the Ceuta crossings. The pact's crisis route, in force since 1 July, covers a third country pushing people at a border, but only if the affected state asks.

”One member state cannot suspend Schengen. What it can do is temporarily reintroduce internal border controls”
Davide Colombiresearcher in the Justice and Home Affairs unit, CEPS

The numbers

People who entered Ceuta
72,000
Official Spanish figures put the number who crossed from Morocco into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July 2026 at 72,000, of whom 70,000 had returned to Morocco by 7 August.
The Guardian
Spain's first count, 1 August
About 50,000 crossed from Morocco from the morning of 30 July and 48,300 had returned by 6pm on 31 July, according to Spain's interior ministry. Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of Ceuta's local government, put it instead at as many as 60,000.
Al Jazeera
The death toll
Spanish authorities said 80 people died in the crossings. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights and the European Coordination for Human Rights in Morocco said on 7 August 2026 that at least 141 deaths had been recorded and that the toll was likely to rise. Morocco's interior ministry has said 11 people died on its side of the border, all but one by drowning.
The Guardian
The rumour and the platforms
A rumour that the Ceuta border was open spread on social media before the crossings. The Commission held talks with Meta and TikTok on 7 August 2026, after which the tech commissioner, Henna Virkkunen, said the platforms must monitor more and work more closely with fact-checkers, above all during a crisis. Magnus Brunner said on 4 August that it was too early to say whether smugglers or a foreign power were behind the spread of the rumour.
The Local
Internal border controls in force
8 states
On 9 August 2026 the Commission's register listed notified internal border controls in eight Schengen states: Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Germany, Sweden and France. Italy's measure runs from 1 August to 1 September 2026 and covers its internal air and sea borders with Spain. Spain's own checks on arrivals from Italy were not yet on the register when it was read that day.
European Commission
Spain's checks on arrivals from Italy
Spain's interior ministry said on 7 August 2026 that temporary checks on travellers arriving from Italy would run from midnight on Saturday 8 August until 7 September, and cited the persistent irregular migration pressure facing Italy. Italy's government replied that it had no intention of revising its own decision before 15 August, when it said Spanish authorities expected a new wave of migration at Ceuta.
The Guardian
How long the controls may last
Under article 25a of the Schengen Borders Code, an unforeseeable threat allows immediate controls for one month and no more than three. A foreseeable threat allows six months, renewable to a maximum of two years, and up to three years in a major exceptional situation. Article 27a obliges the Commission to issue an opinion once the controls reach twelve months in total.
EUR-Lex
The Ceuta and Melilla carve-out
In Spain's declaration on Ceuta and Melilla, in the Final Act to the agreement on its accession to the Schengen Convention, signed at Bonn on 25 June 1991, Spain undertakes to maintain identity and document checks on sea and air connections leaving the two cities whose sole destination is any other place on Spanish territory, and on internal flights and regular ferry connections to another state party to the Convention.
EUR-Lex
When the pact's asylum rules began to apply
Regulation 2024/1348, the pact's asylum procedure regulation, has applied since 12 June 2026 under its article 79, seven weeks before the Ceuta crossings.
EUR-Lex
The pact's crisis and instrumentalisation route
Regulation 2024/1359 has applied since 1 July 2026 under its article 20. Article 1 counts as a crisis a third country encouraging or facilitating movement towards the external borders with the aim of destabilising the Union or a member state. Under article 2 that route opens only when the affected state sends the Commission a reasoned request.
EUR-Lex
The 2021 precedent
9,000
Around 9,000 people entered Ceuta from 17 May 2021, at least 1,200 of them unaccompanied minors, after Moroccan police temporarily eased border controls, opened the gates in their fence and took no action to stop people entering. That is the account in the European Parliament resolution of 10 June 2021, which rejected Morocco's use of migration as political pressure on a member state and, in the same text, called Morocco a privileged partner of the EU.
EUR-Lex

What the comparison shows

Where they agree

Tens of thousands crossed into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July 2026, and Spain says all but 2,000 of the 72,000 were back in Morocco by 4 August. Nobody disputes that people drowned or were crushed at the Tarajal breakwater; the counts of how many differ.

Where they split

Rome calls the checks a power the treaties grant, aimed at a state that failed at its external border. Madrid answers that the treaties are not optional, and has put its own checks on travellers arriving from Italy until 7 September. The Commission has judged neither side: Brunner says only that nobody left Ceuta for mainland Europe or another member state, and von der Leyen credited Spanish and Moroccan police. Davide Colombi of the CEPS think tank reads the measure as political rather than operational, since nobody from Ceuta could realistically have reached Italy. Eleonora Testi, a lawyer at the refugee organisation ECRE, objects to a double standard: Poland suspended the right to claim asylum at its Belarus border and was offered a regulation to help it, not sanctions. The Spanish counts rose rather than clashed, from about 50,000 on 1 August to 72,000 on 4 August. Two Spanish authorities did disagree: Ceuta's leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, put the early total at as many as 60,000 while the interior ministry was saying about 50,000. Spain's 80 dead stands against at least 141 counted by rights groups on 7 August.

What nobody is saying

Italy's checks expire on 1 September and Spain's on 7 September, and neither Rome nor Madrid has said whether they will be renewed. The Code lets an unforeseeable threat justify three months at most, and if a state keeps going anyway the Commission can answer only with an opinion. Nobody has established who put the rumour online either. Brunner said on 4 August that it was too early to say whether smugglers or a foreign power were behind it.

Who says what

Antonio Tajani, Italy's foreign minister and deputy prime minister

Tajani says the Ceuta crisis shows that managing the Union's borders is a shared responsibility between member states, and that uncontrolled migrant flows into EU territory bring risks, terrorism among them, that must be countered without hesitation. Quoted from his post on X, in Euronews's English wording.

”The temporary suspension of Schengen with Spain is a necessary choice to safeguard the security of our citizens and defend the European borders. A measure provided for by the treaties and made unavoidable today”The temporary suspension of Schengen with Spain is a necessary choice to safeguard the security of our citizens and defend the European borders. A measure provided for by the treaties and made unavoidable today
Source: Euronews · Friday, 31 July 2026
Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration

The Commission's line is that the system held. Brunner says the Schengen Borders Code has special provisions for Ceuta and Melilla, and that checks on people leaving Ceuta remained in force. Quoted from his post on X, in Euronews's English wording.

”The situation in Ceuta is unacceptable and I am in close contact with the Spanish authorities. I reiterate that there are no movements towards mainland Europe or other member states”The situation in Ceuta is unacceptable and I am in close contact with the Spanish authorities. I reiterate that there are no movements towards mainland Europe or other member states
Source: Euronews · Friday, 31 July 2026
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

Von der Leyen said on 1 August that the vast majority of those who had entered illegally were back in Morocco. She welcomed the open letter in which the leaders of 22 of the EU's 27 members demanded an urgent meeting of interior ministers, and said the Union needed to learn from the episode to improve its resilience.

”Due to the effective work of Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement. Not a single person reached mainland Spain or the rest of the EU”Due to the effective work of Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement. Not a single person reached mainland Spain or the rest of the EU
Source: Yahoo News · Saturday, 1 August 2026
Pedro Sánchez, Spain's prime minister

Sánchez answers Rome with numbers. He cites Frontex figures which he says show Italy recorded more irregular entries than Spain between 2021 and 2026, and calls for a strong and united European Union. Quoted from his post on X, in Euronews's English wording.

”solidarity and empathy are optional. Respect for European treaties and the facts is not”solidarity and empathy are optional. Respect for European treaties and the facts is not
Source: Euronews · Friday, 31 July 2026
Mari Rantanen, Finland's interior minister

Rantanen puts the fault at the external border, not at the internal ones. On 31 July Euronews counted Finland among the governments that had moved closer to Italy's position. Quoted from her post on X, in Euronews's English wording.

”Spain has completely failed to protect the external border of the Schengen area from incursions. This cannot continue”Spain has completely failed to protect the external border of the Schengen area from incursions. This cannot continue
Source: Euronews · Friday, 31 July 2026
Davide Colombi, researcher in the Justice and Home Affairs unit, CEPS

Colombi argues that the unravelling began in 2015 and goes on because the Commission does not enforce EU law against the states that keep their controls. He says there was no realistic possibility of anyone from Ceuta reaching Italy.

”One member state cannot suspend Schengen. What it can do is temporarily reintroduce internal border controls”One member state cannot suspend Schengen. What it can do is temporarily reintroduce internal border controls
Source: Al Jazeera · Tuesday, 4 August 2026
Eleonora Testi, senior legal officer at ECRE

Testi sets Spain's treatment against Poland's. Warsaw suspended the right to claim asylum at its border with Belarus in March 2025 and was met with a proposed EU regulation to help it, not with sanctions. She thinks the difference comes from the political positions Spain has taken, unlike most other member states.

”the first time that a country has unilaterally reinstated Schengen border controls based on a large number of arrivals in a country with which it doesn't share internal borders”the first time that a country has unilaterally reinstated Schengen border controls based on a large number of arrivals in a country with which it doesn't share internal borders
Source: Al Jazeera · Tuesday, 4 August 2026

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