Spain was the lone holdout as European Union interior ministers met in Luxembourg on October 1-2 to finalise tougher migrant return rules, including offshore ‘return hubs’ for processing deportations outside the EU.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska delivered Spain’s only ‘no’ to the regulation. Madrid objects to the lack of automatic recognition of expulsion orders, uncertain legal safeguards for offshore centres, and detention periods of up to two years even for families.

The debate follows the Ceuta crisis, where tens of thousands crossed into the Spanish enclave from Morocco in late July. Spain managed just 449 expulsions in the last two months and 131 in the past week, with 7,794 voluntary returns. Across the EU, 36,825 returns were carried out in the second quarter, 33.4 percent of expulsion orders, against Spain’s 23.1 percent.

EU leaders have blamed Spain’s regularization policies for a ‘pull effect’, a charge Madrid rejects. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has praised Spain for quickly returning most arrivals to Morocco.