Spain: ultimatum to Italia to remove border controls
Meanwhile, the Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, has travelled to Ceuta to continue providing support to unaccompanied migrant children
The Spanish government has warned Italia that it will take ‘proportionate measures’ if border controls on travellers arriving from Spain are not lifted by Sunday. The controls were introduced following the massive influx of migrants into Ceuta.
According to the Spanish government, the temporary suspension of free movement for travellers between the two countries – in force since last Saturday – “is hampering the mobility of thousands of people and creating legal uncertainty in the middle of the summer season”. “This measure, unprecedented in recent history, was adopted without warning, unilaterally and on flimsy grounds that are incompatible with both the Schengen Borders Code and the truth.”
In this regard, the Spanish government emphasises that Italy is ignoring the fact that ‘none of the migrants who entered Ceuta illegally last week could or can enter the Schengen area freely, as the autonomous city enjoys special status within it’ and that ‘virtually all of them have already returned to Morocco’.
Finally, the Spanish government adds that Italia is ‘the Member State that has recorded the highest number of irregular crossings in recent years, with figures twice those of Spain’.
“Since 2022, Italia has failed to comply with the Dublin Regulation, placing an additional burden of migratory pressure on the other Member States,” the statement released today goes on to say. Nevertheless, the government continues, Spain has never introduced controls against Italia and has always shown ‘solidarity’ towards it, ‘taking in some of the migrants who arrived in Lampedusa in 2023 and repeatedly opening its ports to migrants rescued on the Central Mediterranean route’. Madrid is therefore confident that “Europeanism, common sense and good faith will prevail. Governments should promote understanding between countries and the general interest of their populations, not create divisions and fruitless conflicts fuelled by internal electoral motives”, the Spanish government concludes.
