Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has said that 72,000 migrants have entered Ceuta since last Thursday, adding that 70,000 of them have already returned to Morocco. He also said that his European counterparts had backed the Spanish government's actions and acknowledged the "effectiveness" of the response deployed. Grande-Marlaska spoke after the extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers, held by videoconference on Tuesday at the request of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and backed by 22 member states. At the end of the meeting, EU countries expressed their "strong solidarity" with Spain over the events in Ceuta and pledged to strengthen European early-warning and alert mechanisms for this type of crisis. During the press conference following the extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers, Marlaska defended the work of the CNI and the intelligence services, praising their efforts.