Spain and Italy Trade Border Checks in Escalating Migration Feud

MADRID —

Spain started checking travelers arriving from Italy at midnight Saturday, a tit-for-tat response to border controls Italy imposed a week earlier, according to the BBC and the Guardian. The measure, which Spain's interior ministry said would run until September 7, lets border agents review the passports, nationality and visa status of some arrivals, according to Deutsche Welle.

The dispute traces back to late July, when tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, Spain's North African enclave, in what the Guardian described as an unprecedented and deadly rush. Spanish officials say about 72,000 people entered and roughly 70,000 were sent back to Morocco within days. Spain's government has put the death toll at 80, while the BBC reported estimates of around 100 deaths, and the Guardian reported that Moroccan human rights groups counted at least 141 dead, with the toll likely to rise. Nearly 1,400 minors, some of them very young children, remained in Ceuta afterward, the BBC reported, facing what the Guardian described as dire conditions with little food, water or shelter.

A clash over Schengen

Italy's government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, imposed its own checks on travelers from Spain on July 31, citing national security, according to the Guardian. Rome said it would keep the checks in place until at least August 15, when it expects a fresh wave of arrivals in Ceuta, the BBC reported.

Spain called the Italian checks "unfair, contrary to the EU's interests and discriminatory," according to the Guardian. Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called the move "a torpedo fired at the hull of European unity" and gave Italy until Sunday, August 9, to back down. Meloni's office refused, saying in a statement that "Italy does not accept ultimatums or impositions from abroad regarding national security and border control," the Guardian reported.

Neither country shares a land border with the other, meaning the checks mostly affect air travelers, according to Deutsche Welle. Migration analyst Gerald Knaus told Deutsche Welle the Italian measure was "pure populism" and "completely bizarre," arguing it made little practical sense during peak tourist season.

Diverging politics, similar policies

Sanchez, a socialist, has pushed a more welcoming migration policy, including a residency program for people already living in Spain without legal status. Meloni, from the far right, has promised tougher controls since taking office in 2022. But Knaus told Deutsche Welle the two countries' actual policies are closer than their rhetoric suggests, noting Italy has also regularized hundreds of thousands of workers in recent years.

Finland and Denmark backed Italy's checks, while the Czech Republic called for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen zone, a step the Guardian reported is not legally possible. The European Commission has said the dispute is temporary and will not have a lasting effect on Schengen, according to France 24.