As Italy’s government has kept checks on arrivals from Spain in place past the promised review point, what’s the current situation for travel between the two countries?
After suspending the Schengen agreement on its border with Spain at the start of August, Italy’s interior ministry said it would review the rules by August 15th.
But, as of the time of writing, there has been no indication that anything will change.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told parliament’s Schengen committee on August 13th that checks would continue on the border until any “security risks” to Italy were “completely ruled out”.
The controls, which mean that some passengers face document checks when travelling between the two countries for the first time in more than three decades, took effect on August 1st after some 72,000 people entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta over two days in late July.
Piantedosi told the committee the checks guarded against “possible terrorist infiltration in migration flows,” and claimed that areas of Morocco near Ceuta had a history of jihadist “recruitment and radicalisation.”
He did not say what would count as the risk being “ruled out”, and he did not set a new date by which the checks would be reviewed.
Asked the same day whether July’s mass arrival had created any risk of terrorism or radicalisation, Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said “there is no risk of a terrorist threat.”
Spain on August 8th brought in its own checks on arrivals from Italy in response, calling the Italian measure discriminatory and unjustified. These checks are set to remain in place until September 7th.
The checks on Italy’s side have so far resulted in three arrests and 21 third-country nationals being turned back, six of them Moroccan, Piantedosi said, without giving further details.
Italy notified the European Commission that the current checks would run until September 1st, though Rome could lift the measure sooner or extend it.
The reintroduction of border controls changes nothing in practice for most people crossing between the two countries.
Italian, Spanish and other EU citizens need only a valid identity card or passport, as before. The checks both ways apply to non-EU nationals, and are reportedly being carried out as spot checks on a sample of passengers on selected flights and ferries.
Around 86,000 air passengers a day are affected by the checks, with roughly 500 direct flights daily connecting 29 Italian airports to 22 in Spain.
