Plenković: No One Wants a Repeat of 2015, Borders Are Closed
While leaders of 22 EU member states warn of a mass border crossing, unofficial reports suggest that individuals with a jihadist past have been identified among the migrants.
While leaders of 22 EU member states warn of a mass border crossing, unofficial reports suggest that individuals with a jihadist past have been identified among the migrants.
The European Union does not want a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Sunday, commenting on the mass border crossing in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta last week. His statement comes in the context of a letter sent by leaders of 22 EU member states to Brussels, expressing concern over the situation but also welcoming the response of the Spanish police, who returned nearly 95 percent of the people to Morocco.
"That letter is an expression of concern about what happened. We haven't seen such a mass border crossing in many years. Of course, the response of the Spanish police, where nearly 95 percent of the people were returned to Morocco, is welcome. (...) No one wants a repeat of 2015, so we have all strengthened our borders," Plenković said for Telegram.hr.
Unlike in 2015, when former German Chancellor Angela Merkel symbolically opened the doors to hundreds of thousands of refugees with her phrase "Wir schaffen das," today's Europe pursues a fundamentally different policy. The European People's Party (EPP), to which the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) also belongs, has made a strong shift to the right on migration and asylum over the past decade. Instead of open doors, new rules are now in place that make it harder to obtain asylum and simplify return procedures.
Political pressure on center parties comes from the growing radical right, such as Germany's AfD, and in Croatia from the opposition party Most. Official figures from the EU border agency Frontex show that illegal migration on the Western Balkan route, to which Croatia is also exposed, is decreasing. In the first half of 2026, there were 4,009 illegal crossings, compared to 4,930 in the same period in 2025 and 10,642 in the first half of 2024.
While the EU's political leadership focuses on closing borders, Spanish media El Español and The Objective bring an additional dimension to the story. According to their unofficial information, security services have identified at least a dozen people with a jihadist past among the migrants who entered Ceuta last week. Sources close to the investigation claim that officers from the National Police (CGI) and the Civil Guard (JIGC) recognized individuals from surveillance footage who had previously been arrested, convicted, and deported to Morocco for crimes related to jihadist terrorism.
Euronews, whose author Sonja Issel reported on these allegations, attempted to obtain an official comment from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, the National Police, and the Civil Guard, but no response was received before the article was published. The Spanish government and law enforcement agencies have not publicly commented on these reports.
A similar situation occurred in May 2021, when thousands of migrants entered Ceuta via the El Tarajal breakwater. The then-Spanish government dismissed media reports of jihadist infiltration, calling them a "malicious hoax." Terrorism experts told Euronews last week that the jihadist threat in Spain has evolved into a "fourth phase," characterized by increasingly decentralized radicalization through social media and messaging apps, rather than through traditional hierarchical organizations.
Experts highlighted the close counter-terrorism cooperation between Spain and Morocco, particularly in intelligence sharing and monitoring radicalized individuals, which is crucial when screening large migration flows. However, there is no official confirmation of these allegations yet, and the whole story remains at the level of media reports that authorities have not yet commented on.
