Ceuta: Spain sets up border controls on travelers from Italy
Spain had warned Italy it would impose entry checks on visitors unless Rome halts its controls by Sunday. Even though they don't share a land
Spain had warned Italy it would 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 moved to impose reciprocal entry checks on people traveling from Italy. The Spanish government had warned that it would do so unless Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's governemnt lifted the border measures it has implemented against Spain. 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 checks on travelers from Italy? The border controls on Italy will go into effect from midnight on Saturday until September 7, the Spanish government said. Border agents will check passport, nationality and visas for Italian passengers and visitors from other countries arriving from Italy.
Spain had 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 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?
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