{"id":79306,"date":"2026-09-02T06:33:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T06:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79306\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T06:33:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T06:33:44","slug":"italy-spain-extend-tit-for-tat-border-controls-after-ceuta-migrant-surge-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79306\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy, Spain extend tit-for-tat border controls after Ceuta migrant surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy<\/a> said on Monday it would suspend its open-border arrangements with Spain<\/a> for another 15 days, extending restrictions it imposed after a mass rush of migrants<\/a> into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta<\/a> a month ago.<\/p>\n

In response, Spain said it would also keep checking passengers arriving from Italy by air and \u200csea for 15 more \u200bdays, prolonging tit-for-tat \u200crestrictions that have undermined the European \u200cUnion’s passport-free Schengen zone.<\/p>\n

Rome’s right-wing government initially brought in the restrictions on \u200bAugust 1, saying it wanted to make sure no migrants entering \u200bCeuta could travel<\/a> on to \u200cItaly. Those curbs had been due to expire on Monday.<\/p>\n

The decision to extend the suspension “was taken … due to the persistence of the factors that had led to the reintroduction of the measures,” \u2060Italy’s interior ministry said. Spanish authorities say between 5,000 and 8,000 people remain \u200bin \u200bCeuta after \u200cat least 72,000 crossed from neighbouring Morocco<\/a> on July 30.<\/p>\n

At least 82 migrants were found dead on the Spanish side \u200cof the border and Morocco confirmed 14 more deaths. The ministry said Italy was aware of “the steps already undertaken by Spain, together with the European Union, to help bring the situation in the area \u2060back to normal in the \u200cnear future.”<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has taken a hard line against illegal immigration, is under pressure from a new far-right party, Futuro Nazionale, whose \u200brhetoric is resonating with some voters \u200cahead \u200cof elections due next year.<\/p>\n

The centre-left opposition criticised the decision to reinstate border checks, saying it would undermine ties with Madrid, and that there was no indication migrants in Ceuta would travel to Italy. Spain initially \u2060brought \u200bin its curbs on passengers arriving from Italy on August 8 and said \u200bthey would last for a month. After Italy’s decision, Spain would extend its border checks “for a further \u200c15 days,” the interior ministry there said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy said on Monday it would suspend its open-border arrangements with Spain for another 15 days, extending restrictions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1998,3299,6213,866,605,3593,2264,14730,6215,17,357],"class_list":["post-79306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-border-control","tag-ceuta","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-italy","tag-latest-headlines","tag-migrants","tag-morocco","tag-schengen-rules","tag-small-boats","tag-spain","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}