Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said her Government will keep the closest possible vigilance ahead of a possible new mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on August 15.
In an interview published on August 14 by the Milan financial daily MF-Milano Finanza, she said the crisis at Ceuta and the new wave forecast by the Spanish authorities themselves for that date required maximum attention and the continued adoption of all necessary measures. Her Government would keep working to consolidate the results achieved so far, she added.
Meloni also said the overwhelming majority of European nations now shared the position Rome had set out in recent days.
Europe’s priority should be to protect its external borders from uncontrolled immigration, to rule out any security or terrorism risk and to defend the freedom of movement on which the Schengen system rests, she said.
Italy suspended Schengen free movement for non-EU nationals arriving from Spain on August 1, after some 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in the final days of July. At least 75 died, most of them by drowning near the Tarajal breakwater.
Rome told the European Commission the checks would run until August 31 with the option of renewal. The Italian Government has refused Spanish demands to lift them, saying it would review the measure only after August 15.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said it was hard to believe the conditions for lifting the controls would be met by then. Madrid answered on August 7 by ordering its own checks on travellers arriving from Italy.
The Civil Guard has been tracking calls circulating on social media for migrants to gather in the Moroccan town of Castillejos before attempting to enter. Officers regard the risk as real though say its scale cannot yet be judged.
More than 100 extra Civil Guard officers remain in the city alongside the National Police and army units sent during the July crisis. Moroccan security forces have begun installing razor wire and metal barriers, above all at the El Tarajal customs post.
A European Commission team of migration experts arrived in Ceuta this week for a first-hand assessment. The Commission has said its concern is the protection of the external border at all times rather than any single date.
