Italy extends Spain border checks by 15 days amid Ceuta migration dispute

Rome,UPDATED: Sep 15, 2026 23:24 IST

Italy on Tuesday extended by 15 days the border checks it imposed on travellers arriving from Spain after more than 72,000 migrants entered Spain's North African territory of Ceuta from Morocco in late July. Spain also extended for another 15 days the checks it had introduced on people coming from Italy in response to Rome's move, the Spanish foreign ministry said.

The fresh extensions keep in place a dispute between the two European Union countries over migration, after the chaos in Ceuta was used by the government of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and other hardline European leaders to criticise the migration policies of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Months before the Ceuta crisis, Sanchez's government had launched a drive to legalise some migrants.

Italy had introduced the controls as random police checks at airports and seaports for passengers arriving from Spain, citing a threat to internal security. On Tuesday, the Italian Interior Ministry used the same reason to justify the extension. In a statement, it said it had informed the European Union and other European governments that "high risks to internal security persist, in addition to a potential threat related to possible terrorist infiltration".

Spain said it was extending its retaliatory measures because the conditions that led to them, namely Italy's original sanctions, were still in place. Under the EU's Schengen system, citizens of most member countries can travel across borders without visas for work and leisure. The EU allows member states to temporarily restore controls at internal borders in the event of a serious threat, such as one to internal security, but says such steps should be a last resort, used only in exceptional situations and for a limited period.

Even before Italy imposed the checks, travellers leaving Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's other North African territory, were already subject to EU border checks at ports and airports. Although most of the migrants who entered Ceuta in July were returned to Morocco, NGOs said more than 140 people died in attempts to cross into the territory, including some who drowned or were crushed in a stampede at a breakwater barrier.

More than 5,000 migrants have remained in Ceuta, extending a humanitarian crisis that has also become a political problem for Sanchez in Spain and beyond. His government had announced an amnesty for immigrants without residency permits who could show they had been living in the country for at least five months and had arrived before January 1 this year, and more than 1 million people applied before the window closed. The latest move by Italy and Spain means the temporary border checks between the two countries will remain in force for another 15 days.

With PTI Inputs

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