Spain and Italy escalate diplomatic tensions with border controls amid migration crisis

Diplomatic tensions between Spain and Italy are continuing to escalate after both countries introduced temporary checks on travellers arriving from the other state amid an ongoing migration crisis.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has described the Spanish government’s decision to introduce random checks on travellers arriving from Italy as “incomprehensible and completely unacceptable”.

Rome argues that Spain’s measures are a response to the earlier decision by the government of Giorgia Meloni to introduce checks on people arriving from Spain. Italy began applying its measures on August 1, while Spain introduced its own controls on Saturday, August 8.

Tajani has justified Italy’s position by pointing to the current migration situation and the risk of further movements of people in an irregular situation. The Italian government says it is responding to a potential renewed migration pressure and hopes to lift the measures once the perceived risk disappears.

“We hope to lift the suspension soon, as soon as the risk disappears,” Tajani said, while also accusing the Spanish government of having “dramatized” the situation.

Madrid calls on Rome to react

Spain’s third deputy prime minister, Sara Aagesen, has called on Italy to “react” and defended the position that the Schengen area remains guaranteed.

Aagesen said that free movement within Schengen had not been violated and defended the Spanish measures as necessary to guarantee security and “the dignity of Spanish citizens”. The Spanish government has also stressed that there has been no migration flow from Ceuta towards mainland Spain or other European countries.

Spanish controls at airports and ports with direct connections to Italy began at midnight on Saturday and are currently scheduled to remain in place until September 7, although the government says the situation will be continuously reviewed and the measures could be lifted earlier if the circumstances that prompted them disappear.

On the first day of the measures, Spanish police checked the documents of 199 third-country nationals arriving on 12 flights from Italy at the airports of Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, Alicante and Valencia.

Brussels urges both sides to preserve trust

The European Commission has stepped into the dispute amid concerns over the impact that reciprocal restrictions could have on the Schengen area.

European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner held talks with the interior ministers of Spain and Italy, Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Matteo Piantedosi. Both ministers told him that the restrictions were temporary.

Brunner stressed the importance of protecting the progress achieved by member states in combating irregular migration and highlighted the importance of maintaining trust between EU member states.

Brussels is also hopeful that Italy could lift its controls soon, after Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi indicated that the measures could potentially be removed before August 15.

A crisis that began in Ceuta

The crisis began following the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta on July 30, when around 72,000 people reportedly entered the autonomous Spanish city irregularly, mainly from Morocco. Italy reacted by strongly criticising Spain’s handling of the situation and warning of possible consequences for Europe’s borders.

The dispute has now moved beyond the migration issue and developed into a diplomatic confrontation between two European Union member states, opening a new debate over the limits of free movement within Schengen during periods of migration and security pressure.

Both governments insist that their measures are temporary and can be lifted once the circumstances that prompted them disappear, while Brussels is attempting to prevent the dispute from damaging trust between European partners.