A diplomatic spat between Spain and Italy over the rush of tens of thousands of migrants to the Spanish territory of Ceuta escalated on Saturday after the government in Madrid announced border controls on Italian travelers in response to Rome’s decision to impose sanctions on visitors from Spain.
Italians arriving at Barcelona airport were subject to random police checks after the controls were put into effect overnight, according to Spain’s state news agency EFE.
The Spanish government said the controls would stay in place for at least a month after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni rejected Spain’s warning on Friday that it would take “proportionate measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens” if Rome didn’t lift its own restrictions by an Aug. 9 deadline.
Italy began enforcing air and sea border controls on Spanish citizens on Aug. 1 following Meloni’s scathing criticism of the progressive migration policies of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The feud was triggered after the sudden arrival of 72,000 migrants from Morocco at Spain’s North African territory late last month. Although most of the migrants have since gone back, more than 80 migrants died, including some who drowned or were trampled in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, according to Spanish and Moroccan authorities.
Get breaking National news
The migrant rush on Ceuta also reignited the immigration debate within the European Union, whose leaders criticized Sanchez for policies that they suggested were responsible for the massive influx.
Hawkish EU leaders like Meloni pointed to such policies, including a Spanish government decision to carry out an amnesty for immigrants without residency permits who could prove they had been living in the country for at least five months and arrived before Jan. 1 this year. Over 1 million people applied before the window closed at the end of last month.
- Car-bomb attack targets southwest Colombia a day after conservative president takes office
- Canada’s avocado supply not impacted by U.S. pause on Mexico inspections
- Abbot’s kneecap returned 70 years after it was taken from 13th century grave
- U.S. Senate passes bill that would impose punishing new sanctions on Russia
The 27-member EU bloc has a visa-free travel area known as Schengen that allows citizens of most EU countries to travel easily across borders for work and pleasure.
According to the EU, member states are allowed to temporarily reintroduce controls at the EU’s so-called internal borders in case of a serious threat, such as one to internal security. But it also says border controls should be applied as a last resort in exceptional situations, and must be time-limited.
Meloni’s office on Friday said Italian authorities “have no intention” of lifting border checks on people arriving from Spain by sea or air until at least Aug. 15 — six days after the Spanish deadline.
“Italy does not accept ultimatums or impositions from abroad about national security and border control,” a statement said.
Should there be a repeat of migrant arrivals in Ceuta, Italy would review its decision to impose the checks “only when we are certain that there will be no security or terrorist risks for Italy, that there will be no new wave, and that there are no irregular migrants heading towards European territory,” the statement added.
There are way too many Progressive Leftist Nuts on the Tree of Life and they are breaking it’s branches.
Steve, using your logic then even the Spaniards are immigrants in Spain, and even more so in Ceuta which is on the African continent. We all came from somewhere, give or take an ice age.
@anon, natives are immigrants as well, they have just been here longer and were busy trying to wipe each other out for land and women long before European man got here.
I predict the future, a return to Nationalism and the breakup of the EU.
Che, Italy is wrong. Ceuta is not part of Shengen. Any migrants that did not return to Moroccoa cannot leave Ceuta for mainland Europe.
Italy has its own problems in Lampedusa.
Good! Italy is following the US decisive action.
All this because a minority of people are stupid enough to think borders shouldn’t exist
Anonymous, why do you have to be so gr0ss? That is a 12 year old boy who was later processed and accepted as an asylum seeker.
Is she trying to fuc him
1 man. Let’s send you back first. Only natives should exist in Canada. Thats your logic.
No more immigration! Shut it all down!