Spain says 72,000 migrants entered Ceuta, 70,000 returned

Spain has returned to Morocco 70,000 of 72,000 migrants who entered its north African territory of Ceuta last week, the interior minister said on Tuesday.

"We have reasonably established that 72,000 people irregularly entered Spain and 70,000 have already left," Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a press conference in Madrid after a video call with EU counterparts, updating an earlier figure of 50,000 arrivals.

He says all countries were “constructive” and acknowledged Spain’s immediate response.

He tells reporters that 70,000 of the estimated 72,000 that crossed in Cueta have now returned to Morocco.

Spain is “in the process of resolving” the status of the remaining individuals, and those who do not have the right to remain in the country will be returned to Morocco, he says.

But he goes out of his way to make it very clear that the EU’s Schengen area “was in no way compromised” by the crisis, with “no secondary movement, nor even the possibility of any.”

Ceuta has a special status under the Schengen rules, meaning that all entries and exits to mainland Spain or the EU still require full border and document checks.

He says today’s meeting was “satisfactory” in recognising Spain’s work on irregular migration.