The Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro, has launched a veiled criticism of the Spanish government's immigration policy following the crisis recorded in recent days in Ceuta, reproaching the "lack of regulation" to manage this phenomenon, which, in his opinion, "often has a pull effect."
"These days we are incredulously witnessing the lack of rules, of regulation, for the migratory flows, in which some insist on adopting policies that often have a pull effect, they call them without providing the conditions to welcome and integrate them," Montenegro has pointed out, according to Lusa.
His words represent a direct reference to the Government of Spain which, unlike Portugal, is not doing "what should be done," the head of the Portuguese Executive affirmed this Tuesday, on the margins of the inauguration of the first private family health unit in the country, in the Lisbon municipality of Torres Vedras.
"In Portugal we are doing what needs to be done. We are creating conditions for people to have dignity when they arrive in Portugal," Montenegro insisted, specifying those requirements as "having a job, housing, and (...) access to health, education, and mobility."
In the last week, about 70,000 people entered Ceuta irregularly in just 24 hours, triggering a migratory crisis that the Spanish government considers to be under control after returning almost all of them to Morocco.
This Tuesday, the interior ministers of the EU met to analyze what happened and agreed to strengthen external borders and response mechanisms in order to prevent similar episodes from occurring in the future.
At the same time, and in a context of reproaches to Spain from some European partners, such as Italy and several Nordic countries, Brussels also emphasized this Tuesday that they do not see "a direct link" between regularization policies and what happened last week in Ceuta.