Spanish national police officers check the documents of travellers arriving from Italy, after Spain’s government said it would establish border controls for flights and ships from Italy until September 7, in a dispute over irregular migration, at Madrid-Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, August 8, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS <\/p>\n
Spain\u00a0checked around\u00a0200\u00a0travellers arriving from\u00a0Italy\u00a0at the country’s six largest airports on the first day of\u00a0border\u00a0controls\u00a0reintroduced following a dispute with\u00a0Italy\u00a0over irregular\u00a0migration.<\/p>\n
Spain’s Interior Ministry carried out\u00a0checks\u00a0on a total of 199 people on 12 flights from\u00a0Italy\u00a0to airports in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, Alicante and Valencia, it said late on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Spain said on Friday\u00a0border\u00a0controls<\/a>\u00a0for flights and ships from\u00a0Italy\u00a0would remain in force until September 7\u00a0after Rome applied its own measures, which it said were motivated by the mass migration rush<\/a> by 72,000 people to\u00a0Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on July 30.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc6e\u200d\u2640\ufe0f Restablecidos los controles fronterizos a los viajeros procedentes de #Italia<\/a>.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccc Ante la persistente presi\u00f3n migratoria irregular que sufre el pa\u00eds transalpino.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd1b Desde este s\u00e1bado 8 de agosto, hasta las 00:00 horas del 7 de septiembre. pic.twitter.com\/DEc4hTbWji<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ministerio del Interior (@interiorgob) August 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Italy\u00a0has suspended the European Union’s\u00a0border-free Schengen arrangements with\u00a0Spain\u00a0since August 1 and said it would maintain\u00a0border\u00a0controls\u00a0until at least August 15.<\/p>\n Rome said the measure would not affect Spanish or other EU citizens travelling to\u00a0Italy\u00a0and would instead involve targeted\u00a0checks\u00a0on non-EU nationals arriving from\u00a0Spain\u00a0by air or sea.<\/p>\n Read:\u00a0Spain defends Ceuta sovereignty<\/a><\/p>\n “We hope to be able to lift the suspension soon, as soon as there is no longer any risk<\/a>,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Sunday.<\/p>\n The Schengen Area allows passport-free travel across 29 European countries, although member states can temporarily reintroduce\u00a0border\u00a0controls\u00a0on security or public-order grounds.<\/p>\n