Europe Abandons the Migration Surge in Spain
By Pedro Canales
Spain has been experiencing a genuine “migrant pressure” in recent months, with successive waves of makeshift boats coming from West Africa to the Canary Islands, the southern coasts of the peninsula in the Strait of Gibraltar area, and the Mediterranean coast of eastern Spain; and with uncontrolled and dangerous arrivals of young people to the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, primarily. All border control and migrant reception services are overwhelmed.
Greece, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, the countries that host the largest number of migrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, either directly or via the Mediterranean, have signed the European Migration Pact, which commits Union members to implement a common solidarity policy. However, the “Northern bloc” limits its “solidarity effort” to injecting some funds for monitoring the Union’s external borders and making modest investments in countries of origin to curb departures.
To address this problem, there are two main approaches: the one implemented by Italy and the one Spain aims to pursue. The former has already achieved successes: in the past year, the Italian government managed to reduce illegal immigration by more than 60%. The latter, Spanish, has not yet yielded results.
On his current African tour to Mauritania, Gambia, and Senegal, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has defended his idea of “circular migration,” based on a bilateral agreement with each of the accepting countries. Agreements already exist with Senegal, Mali, and Morocco, as well as with many other Latin American countries; Mauritania and Gambia will join as well.
Circular migration is a legal tool that has existed since 2000, involving training and temporarily hiring workers in their countries of origin, who, after the end of their subsequent “employment contract” in Spain, return to their countries. Different Spanish governments have successfully practiced this for a quarter of a century with Morocco, for strawberry picking in Andalusia and seasonal work in fruit orchards in Extremadura, Andalusia, and Levante. Also with countries like Ecuador and Colombia.
Pedro Sánchez has agreed with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani on a series of measures, including jointly combating the mafias controlling immigration and developing a “regular and orderly” immigration model.
Morocco is the country from which the most foreign workers are temporarily contracted, followed by Colombia. In total, nearly 21,000 workers have arrived in Spain in 2024 thanks to these circular migration initiatives. A drop in the ocean among the hundreds of thousands trying to arrive. Pedro Sánchez’s government emphasizes that “Spain will need between 200,000 and 250,000 migrant workers by 2050 to sustain the welfare state.” This is criticized by the parliamentary opposition led by the Popular Party. Alberto Núñez Feijóo considers Sánchez’s “pull effect” to be “irresponsible” and criticizes his promotion of Spain as a “destination” in Africa.
The Spanish government acknowledges that “circular migration” is not a total solution but is part of it. Spanish administration sources also acknowledge that employers are cautious about signing agreements, as are the migrants themselves about committing to return to their countries. The vast majority of Maghreb and sub-Saharan candidates do not wish to return to their countries of origin.
The “Italian model,” on the other hand, presents a positive assessment of its immigration policy. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni claims to have reduced the arrival of irregular migrants to her shores by 62% in the first seven months of 2024 compared to the previous year, amid the rise in arrivals in Spain and Greece. The Italian model is costly and combines strict land and sea border controls, selective reception, and direct investments in countries of origin. This year, Italy will allocate 5.5 billion euros for this purpose, with 3 billion euros from the Italian Climate Fund and the remaining 2.5 billion from the Development Cooperation Fund.
Among the three migration routes to Europe, only the Spanish route has significantly increased its human traffic by 153%, while the Italian and Greek-Turkish routes have decreased by 64% and 75%, respectively. Additionally, in Italy, “assisted voluntary returns” have increased by 20% so far this year.
The “success” of the Italian model appears to lie in the balanced combination of control measures, with a policy of agreements with countries of origin that receive substantial investments from Giorgia Meloni’s government. This model is questioned by some countries and also by NGOs, which label it as discriminatory, racist, and contrary to human rights.
In fact, Rome has imposed serious restrictions on maritime rescue NGOs: Obligations to take rescued migrants to the nearest port, with fines and sanctions for those who do not comply with the new regulations, up to 50,000 euros.
But it has also signed bilateral agreements with African countries such as Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt to control migration flows, and a specific economic aid agreement with Tunisia, worth 255 million euros, in exchange for halting migration flows.
All this is accompanied by the Mattei Plan, which entails:
An initial investment of 5.5 billion euros in African countries to improve education, health, agriculture, water, and energy, with the aim of halting irregular migration through economic development in these countries.
Both Spain and Italy have signed the European Migration Pact, which will come into effect in 2026, but they are not waiting to implement their own migration models. The European agreement faces challenges such as political differences in the approaches and priorities of each country; varying reception capacities; collaboration with countries of origin subject to different political conditions, as well as with transit countries; different perspectives on the balance between security and human rights; integration models in different countries; and finally, effective return mechanisms for those who do not have the legal right to stay in destination countries.
In this regard, the Spanish President, during his latest African visit to Senegal, was categorical: “It is essential that those who arrive in Spain irregularly return.” This is challenging with migrants entering through Ceuta and Melilla; and with those arriving in rafts, cayucos, or makeshift boats, it is even more difficult because they often dispose of their identification papers. The “hot returns,” interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, have not solved the problem and are also heavily criticized by human rights organizations.
For Amnesty International, “this is about the immediate expulsion of migrants or refugees without access to proper procedures and without the opportunity to challenge the act through an effective judicial remedy.” According to AI, these individuals “do not have the chance to explain their circumstances, apply for asylum, or appeal the expulsion.”
In summary, migration from Asia, Africa, or Latin America to the European continent only has short-term palliatives; in the medium and long term, there is no solution. The economic disparity between departing countries and receiving countries is such that the overall volume of investment would require a new “Marshall Plan” for most nations on these continents. The natural wealth of these countries has been depleted by colonial metropolises, and the resulting underdevelopment is endemic.
