Italy on Friday reaffirmed it will maintain temporary border checks with Spain until at least August 15, refusing to yield to what it called “ultimatums or impositions” from Madrid, despite Spain's threat of retaliatory measures.
The Italian statement came hours after Spain demanded that Rome end the checks within two days, warning that if Italy did not comply by the end of Sunday, August 9, Spain would be “obliged to adopt proportional measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens.”
The diplomatic dispute unfolds as Spain grapples with the aftermath of a mass influx of some 72,000 migrants who crossed into Ceuta from Morocco last week, on foot and by sea.
Italy reintroduced border controls with Spain on August 1, a step Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described as an “extraordinary measure” to “safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation.” The move drew criticism from experts who noted that Italy and Spain do not share a land border, making any migrant movement from Ceuta to Italy highly unlikely. Rights groups dismissed the measure as “political theatre.”
However, 22 EU member states signed a joint letter accusing Spain of creating “pull factors” that destabilise the bloc's borders.
In a separate development on Friday, Spanish police said they dismantled a people-smuggling operation believed to have brought 2,000 migrants into the country via Spain's southeastern coast and the island of Ibiza.
Unaccompanied minors
Beyond the political standoff, Spanish authorities are dealing with a continuing humanitarian crisis in Ceuta. Of the few thousand undocumented migrants still in the enclave, at least 1,342 are children, hundreds of them unaccompanied, Youth Minister Sira Rego said on Friday.
Rego acknowledged “painful images” of children sleeping on Ceuta's streets and said two schools had been opened as reception centres, with more locations being evaluated. Ceuta's capacity to house people is limited to 90 places, while authorities estimate at least 1,100 children need assistance.
“It might only be a matter of a few weeks before we start seeing [children] transferred to and welcomed on the mainland,” Rego told reporters.
Local and international charities have warned that the children face abuse and exploitation. Jose Miguel Morales, head of the southern Spain migrant rights group Federacion Sur Acoge, said some of the children were under 14 years old and had already been beaten and assaulted.
The transfer of children to the mainland has become a domestic flashpoint in Madrid. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government approved 25 million euros ($29m) to help support unaccompanied minors in the territory, but leaders of the far-right, anti-immigration Vox party voiced opposition to aiding migrant children.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal wrote on X that “not one euro from Spaniards” should go “for illegals, for invaders.”
Authorities in Ceuta have tallied at least 100 deaths from the border rush. The vast majority of the migrants who crossed into the enclave have since returned to Morocco.
