Rabat – Spain has imposed border controls on all air and sea travel from Italy as tensions between the two EU countries grow over last week’s mass migration to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.
The measures began at midnight, 22:00 GMT, and will remain in place for one month. They follow Italy’s decision last week to introduce similar checks after over 70,000 migrants from Morocco entered Ceuta.
Spanish officials said documents belonging to between 5% and 10% of passengers were being checked before they could leave planes. Italy has said its checks are random.
The dispute has placed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on opposite sides of the issue. Italy said its temporary suspension of the Schengen free-movement rules was aimed at preventing migrants who had entered Ceuta from travelling onward to Italy.
Madrid rejected the explanation, describing it as based on “spurious arguments” and saying the migrants had no way of entering the Schengen area from Ceuta.
Spain asked Italy on Friday to end its checks by Sunday. Rome said they would remain until at least August 15, when it said Spain “expects a new wave of migration” to reach Ceuta.
Italy has said Spanish and other EU citizens are exempt from the additional checks, which apply to non-EU residents. El Pais reported that several Italian airport terminals had experienced long queues, with passengers arriving from Spain directed to separate lines for checks.
Spanish authorities have described their own controls as random. However, passengers arriving in Madrid said they were asked to show identification before leaving their aircraft.
The measures come after most of the migrants who reached Ceuta last week were returned to Morocco within days. Around 80 people are believed to have died during the crossing, while nearly 1,000 minors remain in Ceuta.
Spain has not announced an expected second wave, although dozens of Facebook posts calling for another crossing in mid-August have been reported. Six groups had more than 100,000 followers. Meta said it had removed posts violating its policies.
The Spanish government said it was monitoring the situation but did not expect a repeat of last week’s scenes. EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner has blamed criminal networks spreading disinformation for the crossings, a claim backed by Madrid.
