Minniti says: “Suspending Schengen is pointless. After Ceuta, a paradigm shift in the EU”

Rome. “If the initial reaction is one of emergency, the response can only be to defend the borders and suspend the Schengen Agreement. But this sort of approach may lead to outcomes opposite to those hoped for,” warns Marco Minniti. The president of the Med-Or Italian Foundation discusses the situation in Ceuta and Melilla, and the migrants arriving from Morocco, against whom the government is threatening to respond by tightening border controls. This has also led to a diplomatic crisis. 

“What has happened in the last few hours must instead be viewed in a broader context: as an opportunity for a paradigm shift, which Italy should work towards together with the European Union,” says the former Minister of the Interior. He continues: “Italy has been highly vulnerable in the past to the suspension of the Schengen Agreement; many countries have applied it against us on the basis that the central issue was that of secondary movements. This is the reasoning behind the EU’s recent decisions: not to manage the flows but to try to minimise the impact on individual countries.” The revision of the Dublin Regulations, Minniti points out, has fallen off the radar. “And this is also a problem for Italy, as a country of first arrival. A radical change of strategy is therefore needed, so as not to expose Europe to blackmail by individual countries and criminal organisations.”

In this regard, the situation in Ceuta and Melilla, alongside the humanitarian crisis, offers various points for consideration. “This is probably the most serious crisis Spain has had to face in recent years. Whilst there were around 8,000 arrivals in 2021, today the figure is in the region of 50,000, with over 50 deaths. A real tragedy,” says Minniti. And there are various reasons for this, the former Minister of the Interior adds. “Sánchez is particularly vulnerable due to legal and ethical issues. He has responded, in a sort of reflex to assert his identity, by regularising the status of around one million migrants.” Added to this is the recent ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court, which deems so-called ‘hot’—or immediate—returns unlawful for those arriving by swimming, just as happened in Ceuta. “A few days ago, Sánchez travelled to Algeria to revitalise relations between the two countries, and the tension between Rabat and Algiers over Western Sahara is well known. Morocco may have used the migrant influx as a powerful lever of pressure, precisely in response to the Spanish Prime Minister’s visit. There has certainly been a major push by human trafficking syndicates following the Spanish court’s ruling.”

All this, Minniti continues, should prompt a reflection that goes far beyond an emergency-driven approach that has little to do with the suspension of Schengen. “Not least because special checks are already in place for the journey from the two enclaves – which have special status – to Spain.” But above all, says the former minister: “We must accept that migration is structural; it cannot be eliminated. It must be managed through rules and processes that take account of the fierce competition between nations – which also involves hostile acts – and prevent non-EU countries from using humanitarian waves as a tool for destabilisation and blackmail.” The president of Med-Or does not believe that the agreements signed in Luxembourg, from which the new Pact on Migration and Asylum was derived, represented a turning point. “If the situation has not spiralled out of control, it is thanks to individual agreements. Such as, for example, those signed by Italy with countries of origin or transit, such as Tunisia and the Ivory Coast. These are agreements that have proved their worth, but they must now be repositioned within a new framework, within new forms of cooperation.” Minniti’s proposal is therefore a genuine strategic pact between the EU and the African Union on legal migration and the fight against human trafficking, also to address the demographic issue: “Individual countries are granted a significant number of regular entry slots in exchange for immediate repatriations: this would resolve many security issues. Furthermore, cooperation is needed in the fight against human trafficking, including through international police operations.” Pending this pact, Italy is pressing ahead with the Mattei Plan: “It is heading in the right direction, but to realise its full potential,” concludes Minniti, “it should take on a European dimension, with Brussels at the forefront. A major project for the stabilisation of Africa, which is of vital interest to us Europeans. Europe and Africa increasingly share a common destiny.”