The Ceuta crisis has turned a long-pending reform into a political emergency.
Almost a month after the mass incursion from Morocco, the government has taken the first step towards replacing the 2009 Asylum Law, and adapting Spanish legislation to the new European migration framework in force since June 12th.
On August 25th, the Council of Ministers approved, at first reading, two preliminary bills: a new Asylum Law and a reform of the Organic Law on Foreigners. The texts must still undergo consultative reviews, return to the Council of Ministers and then begin their parliamentary passage. There is still no date for their final approval, but the machinery of the state has already been set in motion.
Spain, however, is late. Its own implementation plan for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum envisaged legislative changes well before the new European rules began to apply. Legal complexity, divisions within Sánchez’s parliamentary majority, and reluctance over some of the Pact’s more restrictive measures delayed the process.
Many of the government’s partners had described some of those measures as “inhumane” after the Right succeeded in amending parts of the original legislative proposal.
Ceuta has changed the PSOE’s usual parliamentary calculations.
The arrival of between 60,000 and 80,000 people at the end of July overwhelmed the city’s normal capacity. Most later returned to Morocco, but several thousand remain in the enclave, while the accommodation of unaccompanied minors continues to be one of the main administrative problems—one that nobody seems particularly eager to resolve quickly.
The future legislation introduces precisely the kind of mechanisms designed for situations of pressure at the EU’s external borders. In that sense, the law appears almost tailor-made for the current crisis.
There will be mandatory initial screening for those entering irregularly, including identity, security, health and vulnerability checks. From there, each person will be directed towards the appropriate asylum, return or other procedure.
The new Asylum Law will also establish three procedures: ordinary, accelerated, and border procedures. The latter will allow certain cases to be decided without first authorising formal entry into Spanish territory and will, as a general rule, have a maximum duration of twelve weeks. Inadmissibility decisions and returns will also be made easier where the concept of a “safe third country” applies.
That provision is particularly relevant to Ceuta because of its border with Morocco.
The reform, however, addresses only part of the problem. Rabat continues to claim Ceuta and Melilla. The combination of territorial claims and a border whose stability depends to a considerable extent on Moroccan cooperation turns migration into a strategic issue, with the risk that the current situation becomes indefinitely frozen in place.
Ceuta’s population has responded with a determination repeatedly expressed in television interviews over recent days. Residents from across the political spectrum say they are not prepared to leave the city and are demanding a firmer response from the Spanish state.
The president of the autonomous city, Juan Jesús Vivas, has publicly expressed the same position: Ceuta has no intention of surrendering.
Reforming asylum legislation may provide Spain with faster tools to identify arrivals, process applications and carry out returns. But the crisis has shown that Ceuta’s problem does not end with legislative reform. It is a question of political will and resolve.