EU ministers set to meet over migrant crossings in Ceuta

Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said it had convened a meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council.

Jim O'Callaghan, Ireland's Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Minister will chair the conference.

On Sunday, the death toll from Thursday's mass rush into Ceuta from Morocco ‌reached at least 72 after five more bodies were found along Ceuta's coast, officials said.

More than 50,000 people crossed into Ceuta by land and sea in a surge that began on Thursday at one of the EU's only two land ​borders with Africa, prompting alarm across the bloc.

More than 48,000 returned to Morocco within 48 hours .

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Miguel Angel ⁠Perez, the Spanish government representative in Ceuta, said that, in addition to the 72 fatalities, more than 1,000 people had been treated ​by health services since Thursday.

"The situation in the city has improved markedly but more remains to ​be done to re-establish normality," he added.

Some migrants drowned and others were crushed while trying to climb a breakwater and border fence. 

Border patrols reinforced in Ceuta

Ceuta's mayor-president Juan Jesus Vivas told the El Pais newspaper the city's morgue had received 88 corpses, including some who ​had died in earlier, smaller ​attempts to reach the ⁠territory in hazardous night-time swims over the past two weeks.

He said Moroccan authorities were also recovering bodies from the sea, but no official information was available.

Authorities have reinforced ​police and army patrols and on Saturday installed a 500-metre floating barrier off ​Ceuta.

Twenty-two EU ⁠member states wrote a letter asking for coordinated action to protect external borders and other measures after the Ceuta incident.

Italy suspends Schengen travel arrangements

Italy suspended passport-free Schengen travel arrangements with Spain for one month in response to the crisis.

However, the government said the measure would not ​affect Spanish or other EU citizens travelling to Italy and would instead involve targeted checks ​on non-EU nationals arriving from Spain by air or sea.

"This is an ⁠extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation," Prime Minister ​Giorgia Meloni wrote on social media.

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"The measure will be kept in force only for the time necessary, ​with particular attention to limiting any impact on summer tourist flows," she added.

The Schengen Area allows passport-free travel across 29 European countries, although member states can temporarily reintroduce border controls ​on security or public-order grounds.

Italy, which does not share a land border with Spain, also said it had agreed with France to strengthen controls along the Franco-Italian frontier to ​try to prevent undocumented migrants from crossing.

Spain has adopted a more open stance on migrants than most ⁠other EU ​countries, introducing a programme to grant residency to more than 500,000​ undocumented people.

Spanish officials have rejected suggestions that the scheme encouraged the rush into Ceuta, saying that those who entered Ceuta irregularly could not travel ​on to mainland Spain or elsewhere in the Schengen zone.

(With newswires)