Italy reinstates temporary checks on arrivals from Spain

Italy has temporarily reintroduced checks on some travellers arriving from Spain after more than 50,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, intensifying debate over migration controls within Europe’s Schengen area.

The measures will remain in force for one month and apply to non-European Union nationals travelling from Spain to Italy by air or sea, according to the Italian Interior Ministry. Italian and other EU citizens will not be affected.

Border officers will conduct targeted checks to determine whether passengers hold the documents required to travel within the EU. Italy and Spain do not share a land border, meaning the controls will primarily affect airports and seaports.

Rome also said it had agreed with Paris to strengthen surveillance along the French-Italian land border in an effort to prevent undocumented migrants from entering Italy.

The decision followed an unprecedented influx into Ceuta, one of Spain’s two territories on the North African coast. Spanish authorities said around 50,000 people crossed into the enclave from Morocco, with an estimated 48,300 later returning voluntarily.

The arrivals placed severe pressure on the enclave’s authorities and prompted Spain to deploy additional security personnel. Ceuta and the neighbouring territory of Melilla form the European Union’s only land borders with Africa and are frequent focal points for irregular migration.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government presented the temporary controls as a precautionary security measure. Opposition politicians and other critics described the move as largely symbolic, noting that there was no evidence that those who entered Ceuta were travelling towards Italy.

The development has added to divisions among European governments over responsibility for securing the bloc’s external borders and the circumstances in which internal checks may be restored.

The Schengen area comprises 29 countries and generally allows travel across participating states without routine passport controls. Its rules nevertheless permit governments to reintroduce temporary checks where they identify a serious threat to public order or internal security.