Spain planning to introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy

Spain has announced it will introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy in response to Rome imposing similar measures after a mass rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta.

The checks, which come “amid the persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy, will start at midnight on Saturday and last until 7 September, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement.

The rare spat between the EU and Nato allies came after tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco to Spain’s north African territory on 30-31 July in an unprecedented, deadly rush. Hours earlier, Spain even threatened Italy with countermeasures if it did not swiftly lift its own border checks, drawing a rebuff from Rome.

The scenes infuriated EU members that back a hard line on irregular immigration, including Italy, which imposed border checks on people arriving from Spain for one month. The Spanish government criticised the measure on Friday as “unfair, contrary to the EU’s interests and discriminatory for the Spanish population”. But the government of Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said it “had no intention of revising the decision” before 15 August, when it said Spanish authorities “expected a new wave of migration” to hit Ceuta.

Morocco’s interior ministry has said 11 people died on its side of the border, all but one by drowning. Those who remain in Ceuta – including hundreds of unaccompanied children – face dire living conditions with little access to food, water and shelter.