Italy said on Monday it would suspend passport-free Schengen travel with Spain for another 15 days, prolonging checks that began on 1 August after a mass crossing into Ceuta. Rome presents the controls as a way to stop people who reached the Spanish enclave from moving on into Italy. Spain's prime minister told Cadena Ser that no intelligence agency had cast doubt on Morocco's role and blamed criminal gangs for a false claim that anyone swimming in could not be deported.
Italy said on Monday it would suspend the European Union's passport-free Schengen arrangements with Spain for a further 15 days. The checks were introduced on 1 August after a mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, and the interior ministry said the decision followed the persistence of the factors behind the original measure. Rome says the point of the measure is to stop people who entered Ceuta from travelling on to Italy.[1]
Spanish authorities say between 5,000 and 8,000 people remain in the enclave after at least 72,000 crossed from Morocco on 30 July. At least 82 migrants were found dead on the Spanish side, and Morocco confirmed 14 more deaths. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni faces pressure from a new far-right party, Futuro Nazionale, before elections due in 2027; the centre-left opposition called the Italian checks unnecessary and damaging to ties with Spain.[1]
Spain's prime minister told Cadena Ser radio on Monday that no intelligence agency had information casting doubt on the Moroccan authorities' role in last month's mass crossing into Ceuta, and that cooperation with Rabat was frankly positive. He blamed criminal gangs that spread a false claim that anyone swimming into the enclave could not be deported, and said false stories had also been pushed by social media accounts he described as linked to Russia, Israel and an international far right; he did not publish the underlying assessment, and neither government answered that charge in the account of his remarks. About 141 people are thought to have died trying to reach the enclave at the end of July. Sánchez said roughly 1,500 migrants remain in Ceuta, 1,200 of them minors. The opposition People's party and the far-right Vox have attacked the government's handling of the crisis.[2]
