Ceuta: Spain warns Italy it will reciprocate entry checks
Spain has told Italy it will impose entry checks on visitors unless Rome halts its controls by Sunday. Even though they don't share a land
Spain has told Italy it will impose entry checks on visitors unless Rome halts its controls by Sunday. Even though they don't share a land border, the countries entered a spat after the Ceuta border rush. Spain's government on Friday threatened to impose reciprocal entry checks on travelers from Italy, unless Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's governemnt lifts the measures it has implemented by Sunday. Italy's right-wing government announced the checks at the height of the social media panic as tens of thousands of people gained entry to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta bordering Morocco last week. The checks are essentially symbolic, given that Ceuta is not on the European mainland and Italy and Spain do not share a land border, meaning that the vast majority of people potentially affected are tourists on planes. Nevertheless, the issue has turned into a point of dispute between two governments of different ideological persuasions with contrasting messaging priorities on migration policy. Did Morocco instigate the Ceuta migrant incident? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What did Spain say about possible checks on travelers from Italy? Spain called Italy's decision to impose checks on people arriving from Spain "unjustified, contrary to the interests of the European Union and discriminatory against the Spanish population." Madrid had objected to the move on several grounds, saying it was based on "spurious arguments." It said there was no real risk of people who overwhelmed Ceuta's border controls reaching the European mainland, let alone Italy.
It pointed to the vast majority of the estimated 72,000 people returning to Morocco within days. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also drew attention to the higher numbers of irregular migrants reaching Italian than Spanish territory in recent years. "If [Italy] fails to [remove the entry checks] before Sunday, August 9, Spain will be forced to adopt proportionate measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens," the government said. Italy replied later Friday that it would not accept "ultimatums or impositions" from Madrid, and that it would maintain the suspension of Schengen rules for non-EU nationals arriving from Spain until at least August 15. Despite Spain's objections, an array of European countries, including Germany, and the European Commission all made comments about the importance of border security to the open-border Schengen Zoneamid the public uproar. Italy was among comparatively few to go so far as to frame the issue as "suspending" Spain's Schengen status, however. Italy first made the announcement as images and footage of the border breach were going viral online Image: Atlas/REUTERS What do we know about Italy's checks on travelers from Spain? Details on precisely what checks, if any, Italy has actually implemented over the past week have been thin on the ground. Migration analyst Gerald Knaus told DW earlier this week that the move was "pure populism" and a "completely bizarre" measure.
The BriefWire