{"id":1122237,"date":"2026-07-31T14:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1122237\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:05:22","slug":"germanys-merz-demands-morocco-take-back-illegal-migrants-immediately-from-spains-ceuta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1122237\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany&#8217;s Merz demands Morocco &#8216;take back illegal migrants immediately&#8217; from Spain&#8217;s Ceuta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday demanded that Morocco \u201ctake back illegal migrants immediately\u201d after thousands of people crossed the border into Spain\u2019s north African enclave Ceuta in recent days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Merz in a statement said he \u201cwelcomes Spain\u2019s intention not to allow the illegal migrants onto the European continent\u201d and added that \u201cwe expect Morocco to take the illegal migrants back immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conservative leader of the EU\u2019s biggest economy, who took power last year, has vowed to be tough on irregular migration, an issue that has driven support for Germany\u2019s far-right AfD party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cProtecting the European Union\u2019s external borders is crucial for combating illegal migration,\u201d he added in the statement. \u201cI clearly expect all EU member states to fulfil this obligation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are in contact with the Spanish government regarding this matter. Spain wants to \u2014 and must \u2014 bring the situation in Ceuta under control as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday demanded that Morocco \u201ctake back illegal migrants immediately\u201d after thousands of people&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,522,197535],"class_list":["post-1122237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany","tag-international","tag-mna"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}