An extraordinary migration event

Ahead of the emergency meeting of EU interior ministers, we recommend this analysis on the Ceuta’s border crisis by Nando Sigona. The meeting is being framed primarily as a discussion about migration management, external-border controls and Spain’s responsibilities. But this framing risks obscuring the central question raised by the extraordinary speed and scale of the arrivals: how were tens of thousands of people able to gather at such a heavily policed border in so little time? Understanding Ceuta requires looking beyond migration policy to the possible use of border enforcement as diplomatic leverage, even if Morocco’s role and the wider dispute over Western Sahara remain largely absent from the EU’s public discussions.