The Ceuta border incident shows how EU migration can be ‘weaponised’ – but overall levels are declining

It took one night in Ceuta to end a relatively quiet summer on Europe’s southern border. Over 70,000 people entered the Spanish enclave from Morocco between July 30 and 31, most of them swimming around the heavily guarded border fences. For comparison, at the peak of the 2015-16 migration crisis, Italy received over 180,000 irregular migrants across an entire year. This was roughly a third of Italy’s busiest year, compressed into a single day. Most of those who crossed have since returned to…