Spain gives Italy until next Sunday to lift border controls before taking countermeasures - Sarmad

Spain has threatened to impose countermeasures against travelers arriving from Italy unless Rome lifts the border controls imposed on Madrid following the influx of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

In a statement on Friday, the Spanish government described Italy’s measures as “unfair, contrary to the interests of the European Union, and discriminatory against the residents of Spain.”

It emphasized that none of the migrants who arrived illegally in Ceuta last week were able to freely enter the Schengen area under the immigration rules applicable to the enclave.

Spanish authorities had previously announced that most of the migrants who entered the city had voluntarily returned to Morocco in the hours and days that followed, although thousands remain inside Ceuta, causing significant pressure on shelters and public services.

The crisis has sparked widespread debate within the European Union over border security and relations with Morocco. Magnus Brunner, the EU Commissioner for Home and Migration Affairs, stated that the bloc remains at risk if the monitoring of its external borders relies solely on the cooperation or goodwill of a single neighboring country.