Around 100 people died at the end of July as tens of thousands of irregular migrants crossed into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco. This deadly incident immediately pushed migration policy back to the centre of European politics, cementing a right-wing, security-first approach that has become mainstream across the continent.
Chiara Catelli, an advocacy officer at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, observed a "progressive shift towards a more securitarian language from both traditionally conservative politicians and left-leaning ones" in recent years. She added that "the result of treating migration as a security problem with ever more repressive measures is to foster social exclusion and marginalisation, while also criminalising solidarity towards migrants."
The Securitisation of Movement
In Latvia, the discovery of a tunnel under its border with Belarus prompted pledges to increase efforts against smuggling networks. This further frames migration as a security threat, justifying increased border militarisation. Even private companies are now complicit in border control; Meta and TikTok agreed to fact-check content about border crossings in Spain after the Ceuta incident, responding to what officials called misinformation around the border.
The Ceuta influx triggered a deep diplomatic rift between Italy and Spain. Giorgia Meloni's government reinstated border controls for air and sea arrivals following the irregular inflows. Commissioner for Internal Affairs Magnus Brunner confirmed these internal border controls were temporary after contacting both Spanish and Italian interior ministers.
Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland also called for the swift restoration of control over the EU's external borders. They floated reintroducing checks within Schengen, further eroding the principle of free movement for those deemed undesirable. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has worked closely with Meloni on this issue, aligning with the hardline stance.
Outsourcing Asylum and Criminalising Solidarity
Italy and Denmark led an open letter, signed by 22 EU governments, addressed to EU institution leaders. The letter called for "addressing all policies that can serve as pull factors, such as the regularisation of very large numbers of irregular migrants." Ireland, which currently holds the rotating EU Council presidency, Portugal, Spain's historic ally, France, and Luxembourg did not sign this letter, highlighting internal divisions within the border regime.
Even before the Ceuta influx, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez had faced criticism from his EU peers at the last European Council over his plan to regularise around half a million migrants who entered the country illegally. MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Spain/S&D, stated that "at the European scale, the right wing and the nationalist, reactionary attitude towards migration is the prevailing one." MEP Cecilia Strada, Italy/S&D, described Sánchez as the "last bastion of progressive migration policy at an EU level," regularly attacked by right-wing parties in the European Parliament.
Despite this, Sánchez himself adopted securitarian language, pledging to "use all the levers of the state, all the resources of the state, to guarantee the security of the citizens of Ceuta." He called the mass influx a "violation of Spain's territorial integrity," echoing the rhetoric of Fortress Europe.
Fortress Europe's New Architecture
The right-wing turn in EU migration policy was cemented by new legislation endorsed by European governments and lawmakers in June this year. This legislation includes stricter surveillance measures, restrictions on the freedom of movement, and the possibility to establish "return hubs" in third countries. These controversial return hubs, spearheaded by Italy in Albania, aim to establish facilities for processing asylum requests and repatriation orders outside EU borders. The Netherlands and Denmark are also outspoken supporters of this approach, effectively outsourcing the EU's asylum responsibilities.
EPP leader Manfred Weber called for the swift establishment of return hubs in Africa in an op-ed published in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday. He pointed to Morocco's cooperation during the Ceuta crisis, where the country immediately agreed to take back most of those who had crossed the border illegally. French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed return hubs as ineffective and contrary to EU values, offering a rare dissenting voice.
At the last EU summit, 19 leaders signed a joint declaration calling to make "full use" of Europe's new migration rules, an implicit nod to the establishment of return hubs. Senior Commission officials have adopted a similarly securitarian approach. In a special committee meeting in the European Parliament, Commissioner Brunner stated, "we cannot accept such a breach of the integrity of our external borders and a violation also of the security of the Union." Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a letter to Sánchez, asserting that "we must do more to further strengthen our borders at critical points, both with vigilant monitoring and the use of physical barriers where needed." This rhetoric solidifies the EU's commitment to a border regime built on exclusion and deterrence.