Nuñez’s office did not immediately provide additional details on where the increased controls would take place.
France is part of the Schengen area but has repeatedly renewed its authorization to proceed with temporary internal border checks since the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, using provisions in the Schengen Borders Code that allow such measures in response to serious security threats.
But the images of people pouring into Ceuta, an autonomous city of about 80,000 people and one of the European Union’s only two land borders with Africa, have drawn scrutiny far beyond Paris — especially among right-wing and far-right parties across Europe who seized on the incident to call for heightened restrictions on migration.
“The images coming from Ceuta are shocking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a real threat to the security of Europe’s borders,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on X.
Javí Lopez, the vice-president of the European Parliament and a member of the Socialists and Democrats, called Meloni’s comments “unworthy of a European partner.”
“After 700,000+ arrivals from Libya, Italy received European support, not lectures. Solidarity is not a one-way street,” Lopez said.