Germany advocates a new European mechanism for managing situations like Ceuta

O governor spoke at the beginning of the European migration meeting in Munich, Germany.

“We want to provide ourselves with new standards in the framework of a European migration crisis management mechanism”, which implies, firstly, setting standards that “define and identify exceptional situations” at the external borders, Dobrindt pointed out, which receives 17 of his European counterparts and EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, to boost the implementation of the hardening of migration policy in Europe.

He recalled that, in the past, exceptional situations have repeatedly occurred in the form of waves of illegal border crossings, which do not correspond to a humanitarian emergency situation, but are driven by misinformation, people traffickers and criminal groups.

“ We have seen this in recent months and, more recently, we have identified this situation in Ceuta. There was precisely this situation in which misinformation, false information deliberately disclosed and support by criminal groups gave rise to illegal mass border crossings”, he said, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.

He also referred to other situations in the past, where illegal migration is used as a weapon and state actors deliberately provoke illegal border crossings.

Thus, once an exceptional situation of this kind has been identified, it would be necessary to activate a regulatory mechanism capable of organising repatriations through an accelerated procedure, without going through the normal asylum procedure, as this is an illegal and deliberate crossing of an EU external border that does not correspond to a humanitarian emergency.

Dobridt also advocated the creation of a rapid Frontex intervention force capable of providing, within 24 hours, the necessary support for countries facing a similar pressure situation at their external borders, to apply precisely these new mechanisms.

“ The protection of external borders is not a matter of severity, but a fundamental question and task of sovereignty for each State in particular, and our instruments must continue to be developed precisely for this kind of exceptional situation,” said the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration.

Brunner pointed out that, in any case, it is necessary to strengthen and equip Frontex with more resources, also so that the agency can act more quickly and flexibly “before incidents actually turn into crises”.

“ The events of this summer in Ceuta have, of course, shown that sometimes the images obscure even the best statistics”, he added, welcoming the fact that illegal migration has decreased by 55% in the last two years and by another third this year.

It referred to the images that have been transmitted in Europe and throughout the world and that have again highlighted how people are victims of abuse and exploitation and how, in some cases, migration is manipulated by actors who want to harm Europe and use migration as a weapon.

Dobrindt, in turn, referred to the uncertainty that these images have caused in public opinion throughout Europe, while ensuring that coordination with Spanish colleagues on migration issues is “impeccable”.

He added that, in a video conference held in August, it was clear to the Spanish side, on the one hand, the total support in situations such as Ceuta's, but on the other hand, also the “clear requirements on how these should be addressed”, he added.