Remarks by Commissioner Brunner at the European Parliament Plenary debate on the situation in Ceuta and strengthening the EU's external borders

The Spanish city of Ceuta has just over 80,000 inhabitants and in the last two days of July almost the same amount of people entered illegally from the other side of the border.

It tested the resilience of the people of Ceuta and I want to assure them of our respect and our sympathy also for the challenges they are facing.

I also want to express my deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the attempt to get to Ceuta.

This tragic loss of life confirms again what we actually already know. Smugglers kill people. And we must do everything we can to stop them.

This was of course a stress test for our Union, for our system, for our resilience. But, most of the people who entered Ceuta illegally went back to Morocco within a matter of hours. The Schengen area's integrity was preserved.

This was the result of the action taken by the Spanish authorities with the cooperation of Morocco, but of course there are many more challenges which are still ahead of us.

First, thousands remain in Ceuta, including more than 2,000 unaccompanied minors. This brings high pressure and also public order challenges on a territory of less than 20 square kilometres.

A solution must be found as a matter of urgency. Our first priority is clear: All those who entered and remain illegally must swiftly return to Morocco. Morocco has made the commitment to take back all migrants that arrived illegally to Ceuta. And second, we need to step up our efforts to prevent this from happening again.

Before setting out the necessary next steps, let us recall also what our new approach to migration policy has actually achieved already: Building on our new rules on migration and asylum, we have opened a new chapter with fair rules but also firm rules, with the screening of people arriving illegally, the border procedure, new return rules, and safe countries reforms.

We have an assertive migration diplomacy also and also stronger external borders.