Spain has requested the support of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and Europol from the European Commission for the triage work of immigrants who remain in Ceuta irregularly. This was communicated by the Ministry of the Interior this Friday, whose head, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, sent this request to the Director-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the commission, Beate Gminder.
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The letter sent by Marlaska responds to the letter that the Director-General sent on August 21 to the Spanish ambassador to the EU, Marcos Alonso, to whom she offered the help of various European agencies in view of the situation affecting the autonomous city. In response to that offer, Marlaska requests Gminder that Frontex, Europol, and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) reinforce the device set up to deal with the management of triage and subsequent processing of the personal files of immigrants who still remain in Ceuta irregularly.
In the case of Frontex, the Interior Ministry requests to extend as much as necessary the duration of Operation Minerva, which covers the ports of Algeciras, Tarifa, and Ceuta during the Strait Crossing operation until next September 2, while the situation created in the autonomous city is resolved. In addition, the ministry requests the participation of ten additional agents from the general Frontex body in the triage work in order to speed up the procedure of collecting information from the people who arrived on July 30 and 31 and have not yet undergone this procedure.
In this triage process, the Interior Ministry considers that the assistance of the European Union Agency for Asylum in conducting interviews and providing interpreters would be very useful. Given the limitations of the spaces intended for this purpose in the city, these actions would be carried out remotely.
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Likewise, Minister Marlaska asks Gminder that the oceanic ship Duque de Ahumada of the Civil Guard, which operates six months a year under the orders of Frontex as its charter has been co-financed by the EU, remain in Spanish waters during 2027. And finally, he demands the maintenance of the EUROSUR Fusion Services which, operated by Frontex, provides satellite images of the border with Morocco for the surveillance of maritime zones, ports, coasts, or relevant pre-border areas.
Regarding Europol, Marlaska advocates maintaining and deepening the existing operational cooperation between the Spanish security forces and this European agency, especially in the investigation of migrant trafficking networks.
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