Schengen suspension, Rome does not back down and Madrid responds with controls

The Italian government has confirmed that it does not intend to withdraw the Schengen area suspension measures adopted after the Ceuta migration crisis. The suspension, according to reports, remains in force until August 31st. In the meantime, Spain has for days activated controls on travelers arriving from Italy, both by sea and by air, checking passengers’ documents, nationality and visas.

At the root of the tension between the two governments is also a Spanish intelligence document, cited by the press, which speaks of a concrete risk of Islamist terrorism linked to the secondary movements of migrants recorded after the Ceuta crisis. This is an element that shifts the confrontation from a purely administrative level — the management of migration flows — to that of security, further hardening the positions of the two governments.

On the Italian side, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani attributed responsibility for the escalation to the Spanish government, describing Madrid’s response as an unjustified measure and hoping for a swift withdrawal of the countermeasures.

“Spanish retaliation is unacceptable” — Antonio Tajani, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister

Tajani’s position frames the Schengen suspension as a measure that Italy considers temporary and reversible, but which it intends to maintain until the Spanish attitude on controls changes.

President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella intervened on the level of principles, recalling that the dignity of the migrants involved in the crisis must be respected regardless of the outcome of the diplomatic confrontation between Rome and Madrid. This is a reminder that stands above the bilateral dispute, and that concerns the treatment of the people involved in the migratory movements regardless of the control measures adopted by the two governments.

The affair fits into a broader picture of tensions over the management of internal borders within the Schengen area, which in recent days has also involved other European countries with requests and counter-requests over the management of migrants disembarked in Italy. The fact that the Italian suspension has a precise deadline, August 31st, opens a time window within which the two parties could reach an agreement, or further extend the measure.

The concrete effects of the Spanish controls on travelers remain to be verified in the coming days — in terms of waiting times and the number of people turned back or detained — since the sources currently available do not provide aggregate figures on the cases handled by the Spanish authorities during the days the measure has been in force.