Spain to reform asylum laws to align with EU rules as Ceuta crisis remains unresolved

Key Points:

• The Spanish government plans to present a draft bill to reform immigration and asylum laws, aligning national legislation with the new European Pact on Migration and Asylum, which facilitates rejecting asylum claims and speeding up expulsions.
• The reform aims to address the ongoing migrant crisis in Ceuta, where 80,000 people crossed illegally from Morocco in one day, with about 5,000 remaining, including 2,000 minors; the government faces challenges in managing unaccompanied minors amid legal and political disagreements.
• The bill will implement the EU's "screening" procedure and affect other regions like the Canary Islands, which have experienced increased irregular arrivals by boat.
• The Spanish government declared the Ceuta crisis a national security issue and called for a single command to manage the response, a move criticized for being delayed, while the root causes of the influx remain unclear.
• Spain faces pressure from the European Commission to carry out returns where legal grounds are lacking, ensure minors' rights, and manage diplomatic tensions with Morocco, which criticizes Spain's earlier migrant regularisation efforts.