Supreme Court Restricts 'Hot Returns' at Sea

Spain's Supreme Court rules that the summary-return ('devolución en caliente') procedure for expelling unauthorised migrants applies only to breaches of the physical border fence, not to migrants intercepted at sea approaching Ceuta or Melilla — who must instead go through the ordinary immigration procedure. Smuggling networks in Morocco spread a self-serving, exaggerated interpretation of the ruling on social media in the following weeks, which Sánchez later says helped mobilise the July crossing.