Ceuta is facing a migration crisis (Image: Getty)
Spain’s border crisis must act as a “wake up call” and lead to Britain leaving the ECHR, Andy Burnham has been told. Around 60,000 migrants stormed the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Thursday as border controls collapsed, creating a diplomatic disaster for European leaders. At least 43 people died as men attempted to swim to Tarajal beach, with bodies seen floating in the water. Others were killed in stampedes as men surged across land borders. The Beni-Enza border between Morocco and Spain was also closed after hundreds of North Africans made it into Melilla. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni warned of a European security crisis as she demanded Spain be booted out of the open borders Schengen Area.
But Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam told the Daily Express: “This should be a wake-up call for our own Government who are, disgracefully, making essentially the same mistakes as the Spanish Government.
“As soon as they came to power, Labour scrapped rules introduced by the last Government which banned illegal migrants from seeking asylum. Fewer than one in six rejected asylum seekers are removed from this country. And now, the Home Secretary is talking about opening up more ‘safe and legal routes’, with ‘community organisations’ allowed to sponsor asylum seekers.
Migrants are swimming across to the Spanish enclave (Image: Getty)
“As Spain’s sorry example shows, if national governments won’t take their borders seriously, illegal migrants won’t either. A soft touch on mass migration today always means more mass migration tomorrow.
“If we want to prevent Europe’s immigration crisis from adding to our own crisis at the border, we must make clear that those who come to this country illegally will never be allowed to stay here.
“That means leaving the ECHR, and swiftly removing everybody who arrives here illegally. If we don’t act now, Spain’s self-imposed immigration crisis could soon filter through to our shores.”
The Spanish interior ministry claimed 37,500 of the arrivals who crossed into Ceuta had returned to Morocco. Some of the 43 people who died had drowned but some were also killed in a stampede to cross the breakwater fence at Tarajal beach. The death toll is expected to rise. The waters near the border fence were yesterday littered with buoys, shoes and other belongings left behind. Spain sent military and police reinforcements to Ceuta after the surge, while Moroccan authorities deployed water cannon trucks and reinforced security at the crossing-gates.
They also fired tear gas to keep people away. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez blamed human smugglers for the crisis, saying they “deceive so many young people, and ultimately lead many of them to their deaths — whether in the ocean or, as in this case, at Spain’s border in the autonomous city of Ceuta.”
But critics blamed a Spanish Supreme Court ruling – which barred migrants who arrived by sea from being deported – for the influx.
They fear it will lead to more people being transferred to the mainland. And Spain’s migrant amnesty led to almost 1.2 million people applying for the scheme during a 10-week period.
It was open to undocumented migrants who had been living in the country for at least five months by the end of last year, provided they had no criminal convictions.
Official figures this month show that more than 600,000 applicants have already been granted temporary work permits since the scheme closed on 30 June.
Ms Lam added: “Once in Spain, illegal migrants will be able to seek asylum en masse and, thanks to the EU’s new ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, will spread out across the continent, with all EU states obliged to host a share of them, or otherwise assist in (and pay for) their resettlement.
“So what possible deterrent is there for crossing illegally into Spain?”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Schengen allows these migrants an easy route to Calais and unless we leave the ECHR, we simply cannot stop them. In a few months time, they will all be queuing in Calais to cross the English Channel and illegally enter Britain.
“I support my friends Giorgia Meloni and Jordan Bardella who say they will take extraordinary measures to stop this invasion.” The Ceuta crisis has led to European leaders turning on each other, throwing the future of the Schengen Area into doubt.
Migrants clashed with police (Image: Getty)
Ms Meloni said: “The images coming from Ceuta are striking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal migration poses a concrete threat to the security of Europe’s borders.
“Italy will not stand by and watch. We are prepared to intervene to defend the borders and safety of citizens, including suspending the Schengen Area with Spain.”
President Donald Trump said: “I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looked like an invasion of a country.
“If you look at Spain, they don’t know what to do. They are coming in by the thousands. What this is is weak law, bad management but very liberal law. Nobody has seen anything like it.”
Jordan Bardella, the frontrunner to become the next French President, said: “This is an unprecedented deluge. Ceuta is Europe’s future if we do not put an end to this naive migration policy.
“In the face of this emergency, the European Union must immediately suspend Spain from the Schengen Area: the European peoples cannot be the collateral victims of the policy of Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.”
The President of France’s National Rally added: “Migratory flows don’t stop at Ceuta: these 60,000 migrants will head tomorrow to the European continent itself, with the blessing of his corrupt socialist friends in Spain. We cannot and must not let this happen. It is time to hold Pedro Sánchez and all the ideologues of population replacement accountable.”
Mari Rantanen, the Finnish interior minister, said: “Spain has completely failed to protect the external border of the Schengen area from infiltration.
“This cannot continue. All European countries must support Meloni’s proposal. Countries that do not fulfil their obligation to protect the external border cannot be members of Schengen.”
France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez added: “In response to the situation observed in the Ceuta enclave, I gave instructions as of last night to immediately strengthen the controls at the Spanish border.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham refused to criticise Mr Sánchez’s policies but admitted that “more needed to be done”.
The Prime Minister said: “It’s a concerning situation and I know people will see those scenes and want something to be done, more to be done.”
He added that he was in contact with Spain to “provide support” but said the crisis was “a matter for the Spanish government”.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel called for strengthened procedures at both the English Channel and Gibraltar, where Labour recently agreed a deal to dismantle the land border with Spain.
“What steps will you take to protect Gibraltar from the risks of these illegal migrants being able to enter illegally should they reach mainland Spain?’ she wrote. ‘Have you assessed the risk of these migrants travelling towards the UK?”