madrid, spainReuters —
Spain’s government announced on Friday that border controls will be in place for planes and ships from Italy from midnight Saturday until September 7 due to a dispute with the neighboring country over irregular migration.
Passport, nationality and visa checks will be carried out on Italian passengers and visitors from other countries arriving from Italy “as irregular immigration pressure continues” from the country.
Spain announced it would apply the measures, while Italy announced it would apply its own measures, motivated by a mass migration of 72,000 people in Spain’s African enclave of Ceuta on July 30.
Italy announced early Friday that it would not bow to “ultimatums or impositions” from Spain and would maintain border controls for people entering the country until at least August 15.
Spain threatened early Friday to impose reciprocal measures on travelers from Italy unless border restrictions imposed by Rome last week were lifted by Sunday, following a large influx of migrants from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
The Italian government said in a statement that it would only reconsider the decision if it was certain there were no security or terrorism risks and that there would be no new waves of migrants or irregular migrants heading to European territory.
This will continue in the future.
