Italy-Spain: the row over migrants continues as border controls are extended

Rome decided to extend for a further 15 days the reinstatement of air and sea border controls on travellers arriving from Spain, prompting an immediate reaction from Madrid

The standoff between Italy and Spain over the migration issue continues following the crisis that erupted in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on 30 July, when some 72,000 people entered from Morocco in just over a day. This situation triggered a bitter clash between Madrid and Rome following the Meloni government’s decision to temporarily reinstate internal border controls with Spain.

On Monday, the government in Rome decided to extend for a further 15 days the reinstatement of air and sea border controls on travellers arriving from Spain, which was introduced on 1 August. The measure prompted an immediate reaction from Spain, which in turn decided to extend border controls for a further fifteen days on passengers entering the country from Italy by sea or air. The checks had been introduced on 8 August by Madrid for an initial period of one month, after Italy had refused to lift the suspension of the Schengen Agreement with Spain.

The Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, justified the move by describing it as “necessary” and “justified” by the analysis carried out by specialists “within the border security analysis committee”.

Responding to journalists’ questions on the sidelines of an event in Naples, Piantedosi stated: “We have limited it to 15 days because, whilst on the one hand the analysis carried out by the specialists indicates that the reasons for which this measure was taken still remain, on the other hand the efforts being made by the Spanish government, together with the European Union, to resolve the situation that has arisen are certainly commendable.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani also welcomed the government’s decision, emphasising that it is “temporary and motivated by the need to guarantee the security of Italian and European borders, and to prevent any infiltration, starting with that by jihadists”.

Tajani clarified that “Italy will continue to work with all European Union countries, in a spirit of cooperation including with Spain, with the aim of combating illegal immigration and, instead, promoting controlled and regular migration flows”.

Harsh criticism of the government’s decision came from the opposition. The vice-president of the M5S, Vittoria Baldino, accused the government of provoking a confrontation with Spain, one of the countries that, like Italy, shares the status of an external EU border and which in the past has stood shoulder to shoulder with Rome on the management of migration flows. According to Baldino, the checks were introduced on the basis of a “false alarm”, as the events in Ceuta were not followed by a migration emergency on European soil, whilst the government’s decision risks jeopardising relations with Madrid.

Riccardo Magi, secretary of Più Europa, was also critical, arguing that the extension responds more to “Meloni’s nationalist propaganda” than to genuine security needs. Magi takes particular issue with the lack of data on how many migrants who passed through Ceuta were actually intercepted at the Italian borders, and warns that the reinstatement of border controls risks undermining “one of the pillars of the European Union”: freedom of movement. Più Europa has announced that it will ask the Prime Minister to answer for this in Parliament.

Sánchez’s renewed call for solidarity and his attack on the right

Meanwhile, Spain is casting doubt on the very existence of a secondary influx large enough to justify maintaining border controls. According to reports in the Spanish press, one month on from the Ceuta crisis, the vast majority of people who entered the exclave have in fact already returned to Morocco. In an interview on Monday with Cadena SER, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reported that of the approximately 70,000 people who entered illegally between 30 and 31 July, around 5,000 remain in Ceuta – 1,200 of whom are minors – whilst the majority of the others have returned voluntarily to Morocco. Sánchez also defended Madrid’s handling of the crisis and called for greater European solidarity, pointing out that Spain had previously taken in migrants who had arrived in Lampedusa.

Spain also criticises the Italian government’s position that the Ceuta crisis poses a concrete risk to internal security and the risk of terrorist infiltration.

In early August, the Italian government had justified the reintroduction of border controls partly on the basis of intelligence assessments regarding possible new mass arrivals and the risk that individuals linked to jihadist terrorism might infiltrate the migrant groups. However, in recent weeks, El País had already noted that the Spanish authorities had not confirmed some of the assessments attributed to them by the Italian government, particularly regarding the possibility of a new wave of tens of thousands of people arriving in Ceuta.

The Spanish objections are further reinforced by the limited results so far of the checks introduced reciprocally by the two countries. La Vanguardia had already pointed out in mid-August that the checks carried out by Spain on travellers arriving from Italy had not resulted in any arrests or particular security issues: in the first few days, over 5,000 passengers on 462 flights had been checked, with 725 officers deployed, without any significant increase in waiting times. The checks mainly concerned non-EU citizens.

Sánchez, in his interview with Cadena SER, his first extensive appearance since the summer break spent in the thick of the emergency, reiterated that the crisis originated in the “distortion” and spread on social media of a mistaken reading of a Tribunal Supremo ruling, STS 814/2026, issued on 29 June and made public on 8 July, which limits the application of so-called “hot returns” to those attempting to reach Ceuta and Melilla by swimming. The PM linked the spread of this disinformation to networks tied to Russia and Israel, as well as to a “far-right international” that, in his view, systematically exploits the migration issue against Spain and against the European Union.

Sánchez ruled out Moroccan involvement in the crisis, stating that he has no information from the CNI or from the security forces indicating any involvement by Moroccan authorities, and he credited Rabat with “instant cooperation” from 30 July onward. He acknowledged that in the days preceding the mass entry, meetings had been held between the authorities of Ceuta and the central government, but he specified that no information shared in those meetings anticipated the scale of the crisis of 30 and 31 July, while denying that there is any contradiction between the accounts previously given by Defence Minister Margarita Robles and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska regarding the CNI reports.

The article in Italian by EUalive’s partner FocusErope.it can be found here.

Caption: Migrants wait outside the Loma Colmenar temporary migrant shelter in Ceuta, Spain, 31 August 2026. Spain faced a massive migration crisis after thousands of people crossed into the North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco in late July 2026. EPA/Reduan