Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has described Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to check travellers arriving from Italy as disproportionate and as retaliation for Rome’s suspension of the Schengen agreement. He said Italy would lift its own measure as soon as the danger had passed.
Speaking in an interview with La Stampa published on August 9, Tajani said Italy had acted within the European Union treaties. He said the checks were a precaution rather than a quarrel with Spain.
Italy suspended Schengen for third-country nationals arriving from Spain on August 1 and notified the European Commission two days later. Rome said the checks at its ports and airports would run until August 31 with the option of renewal.
The Spanish Government answered at midnight on August 8 with checks on all arrivals from Italy at Spanish ports and airports. Those controls are due to run until September 7.
Tajani traced the dispute to the night of July 30-31, when Spain’s Interior Ministry recorded about 72,000 entries into Ceuta from Morocco. Spanish authorities have put at 77 the number of people who died attempting the crossing.
He said Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas had counted between 8,000 and 11,000 migrants still in the enclave, thousands of them sub-Saharan nationals who cannot be returned. Tajani said onward movement by non-Moroccans was the real risk and that Italy was the most exposed destination.
About 15 irregular migrants had already been stopped in Italy, the minister said. He added that some of those who reached Ceuta had previously been expelled for jihadism and that arrivals from sub-Saharan Africa carried a jihadist threat.
Tajani said Spanish intelligence had flagged the risk of a fresh wave around August 15. The Spanish Government has been monitoring a call circulating on social media for a new crossing on that date.
The Italian minister also blamed Sánchez’s regularisation of about one million undocumented migrants, arguing that it sent a negative message and put everyone’s security at risk. He said that concern was shared across Europe.
Tajani said Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner had reminded Madrid of its responsibilities, and that Schengen should not be revoked in reprisal at a cost to tourism.
Madrid argues that Ceuta lies outside the Schengen area and that identity checks already apply to anyone travelling from the enclave to the mainland. Brunner told EU interior ministers on August 4 that no migrant from Ceuta had entered the Schengen area.
