Finnish minister prepares to restore internal border checks over Ceuta situation

Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen has begun preparing to restore internal border checks because of the situation in Ceuta, Yle reports, citing MTV News.

Rantanen said on Friday that the necessary decisions could be made quickly if required.

The preparations follow the unauthorised arrival of tens of thousands of migrants in Ceuta, a Spanish territory on the North African coast. Spain’s Interior Ministry said earlier on Friday that about 48,000 migrants had returned from Ceuta to Morocco.

Rantanen said the Schengen area relies on trust and on countries at its external borders protecting those borders.

“Spain’s external border is also our external border, and unfortunately there has been a failure to prevent this intrusion and invasion,” Rantanen told MTV News.

Earlier on Friday, Rantanen said she supported Italy’s proposal to exclude Spain from the Schengen area. She wrote on the social media service X that countries which failed to protect their external borders could not be members of Schengen.

Italy later announced that it was suspending Schengen cooperation with Spain.

Rantanen declined a telephone interview with STT on Friday. In comments sent by email on Friday afternoon, she repeated the points made in a social media post published earlier that morning.