MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The situation on the border between Spain and Morocco is no longer an emergency. Tens of thousands of people crossed into the Spanish territory of Ceuta last Thursday. Most have now left, but as Teri Schultz reports, there is still a political divide in the European Union.
TERI SCHULTZ: When the population of the Spanish border town of Ceuta on the north African coast nearly doubled in two days due to a sudden increase in would-be migrants, it sent a wave of panic throughout the European Union. Would these people get through the Spanish border and enter the rest of Europe? Spoiler - no, they wouldn't. But EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner was keeping a close eye on that.
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MAGNUS BRUNNER: These past few days were, I would say, a test of our European resilience on the one hand and of the security of our external borders.
SCHULTZ: If that sounds like the other 26 countries had rallied behind Spain, think again. Many actually blamed Madrid. That sentiment was toned down by the time EU interior ministers met in emergency session Tuesday. But as the crisis was underway, 22 of the bloc's 27 prime ministers suggested in a hastily drafted letter that a ruling on migrant rights taken by the Spanish Supreme Court on July 8 and the government's decision this year to allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants living in Spain to apply for residency may have encouraged the rush, while Commissioner Brunner acknowledged there's no proof of that.
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BRUNNER: It's not a good signal. Definitely not. It's not a good signal for the rest of Europe.
SCHULTZ: Migration expert Saila Heinikoski with the Finnish Institute of International Affairs has her own ideas about what's not good for Europe - the instinct by some EU member states to suspend visa-free travel with Spain, as Italy did, even though none of the incoming migrants made it through Ceuta's own border protection to travel onward.
SAILA HEINIKOSKI: That was really, really surprising, and I think very detrimental for the EU as a whole.
SCHULTZ: Even Heinikoski's native Finland, the EU country furthest from Ceuta, immediately said it would reinforce its borders when the crossings started. Heinikoski also noted Finland has itself experienced migration manipulation on its border with Russia. She says upcoming elections in many countries are making migration issues even more politically charged than usual.
HEINIKOSKI: It tells about the whole political situation in the EU at the moment that it benefits the far right. They use it for their own political purposes.
SCHULTZ: Michele LeVoy is the director of the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants. She says research has disproven the argument that regularization of migrants creates a pull factor, and the fact that at least 80 people died in the Ceuta incident underscores the need for more legal pathways for people to enter Europe.
MICHELE LEVOY: People dying while trying to come in is really what the focus should be. Why are people ready to risk their lives?
SCHULTZ: Discussing ways to bring people in is much less politically popular at the moment than how to better keep them out, which was the top priority of the EU meeting Tuesday. And with the Spanish government outraged at how it was treated by most of its EU counterparts, there are fences to mend in more ways than one.
For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Helsinki.
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