Spain to impose border checks on Italy visitors amid migration dispute over Ceuta

Spain's interior ministry has announced temporary border checks on travellers arriving from Italy, effective from midnight Saturday until 7 September. The move mirrors border controls Italy introduced weeks earlier, citing pressure from irregular migration.

The dispute followed an unprecedented rush of tens of thousands of people crossing from Morocco into Spain's north African territory of Ceuta on 30-31 July. The scenes angered EU members favouring strict immigration policies, including Italy, which responded by imposing a one-month border check on arrivals from Spain.

Spain's government on Friday called Italy's checks "unfair, contrary to the EU's interests and discriminatory" against Spaniards. Foreign minister José Manuel Albares described the move as "a torpedo fired at the hull of European unity" and demanded Italy lift the checks, threatening "proportional measures" by Sunday if it failed to comply.

The office of Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, rejected the ultimatum, saying Italy does not accept impositions on matters of national security and would not revise its decision before 15 August — a date it said Spanish authorities expect a fresh wave of migration to hit Ceuta. Spanish police have reportedly been monitoring online rumours of new arrivals, though authorities have not officially confirmed such expectations.

Italy, which has no land border with Spain, applied its checks to non-EU nationals arriving by sea or air. Meloni had earlier been among EU leaders calling for Spain's suspension from the Schengen zone, a move that is not legally possible.

According to Spanish figures, 70,000 of the 72,000 people who entered Ceuta have since returned to Morocco, while 80 people died during the crossings. Moroccan human rights groups put the death toll at least at 141, with figures expected to rise further, and Morocco's interior ministry reported 11 deaths on its side of the border. Those still in Ceuta, including hundreds of unaccompanied children, face severe shortages of food, water and shelter.