Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Rome is prepared to suspend the Schengen agreement with Spain after thousands of migrants crossed into the north African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on July 30.
Meloni said she had convened the competent bodies and was ready to act “to defend our borders and ensure the safety of our citizens”. She said she had spoken to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and that uncontrolled illegal immigration threatened the security of Europe’s borders.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani raised the proposal first, tying the crossings to the Spanish Government’s extraordinary regularisation programme for undocumented migrants. He called the measure “profoundly wrong” and said it encouraged human trafficking.
The decree approved in April grants a one-year renewable residence and work permit rather than Spanish nationality, and is expected to benefit about 500,000 people.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini also backed suspension, describing the defence of Italy’s borders as a duty. He was definitively acquitted in December 2025 over his refusal to let the Open Arms rescue vessel dock in 2019.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares summoned the Italian ambassador in Madrid, Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi. He said the message was unbecoming of a partner and friendly country from which Spain expected European solidarity rather than partisan demagoguery.
Albares said the crossings stemmed from a Supreme Court ruling of July 8 barring the summary return of migrants intercepted at sea off Ceuta and Melilla, and had nothing to do with the regularisation.
The Ceuta government said between 1,500 and 2,000 people had entered in the previous 10 days, with hundreds more arriving on July 30 around the El Tarajal breakwater. At least nine people died attempting the crossing.
Madrid rejected local calls to declare a national emergency but deployed the Armed Forces to support the Civil Guard.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his Government would work with Moroccan authorities to “restore normality as soon as possible”. The two countries agreed to speed up returns, though no timeline or figures were made public.
European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner offered Spain operational support through Frontex, saying protection of the bloc’s external borders was “a crucial part of our efforts to fight illegal migration”.
The Schengen Borders Code allows member states to reintroduce internal border controls temporarily where there is a serious threat to public policy or internal security. Italy already applies such checks at its frontier with Slovenia.
In June the European Commission urged nine Schengen countries, Italy among them, to phase out internal border controls.
