Italy suspends free movement with Spain: Is Schengen in crisis after Ceuta?
Al Jazeera – News
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On July 30, days after more than 60,000 people crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, Italy announced it was reintroducing border controls with Spain. What it can do is temporarily reintroduce internal border controls,” he said. Europe’s refugee crisis peaked in 2015, when more than a million people arrived in the European Union. Germany reinstated border controls with Austria after roughly 40,000 arrivals in one weekend; Austria, France, Sweden, Norway and Denmark soon followed. But Italy’s move represents “the first time that a country has unilaterally reinstated Schengen border controls based on a large number of arrivals in a country with which it doesn’t share internal borders,” said Eleonora Testi, ECRE’s senior legal officer. Testi contrasted this with the EU’s treatment of a comparable case, when Poland suspended the right to claim asylum at its border with Belarus in March 2025, in what AIDA described as a clear breach of EU and international law. There was no equivalent show of member-state solidarity – instead, an EU regulation was proposed to help Warsaw manage the crisis. “There is a different response in this case,” Testi said, “probably because of the general political positions that Spain has held in comparison to most other European member states.” At a time when most European countries shift towards tougher border and asylum measures, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s socialist government in Spain has pursued a comparatively liberal migration policy, leaning on economic integration and legal pathways rather than deterrence. Italy itself has maintained controls on its border with Slovenia. The European Pact on Migration and Asylum, meant to distribute responsibility more fairly across the bloc, became applicable on June 12, barely six weeks before Italy’s move tested the scenario it was designed to manage. “We’ve heard the narrative that the pact works, but only if arrivals are kept low … an asylum system has to function even in times of emergency,” said Testi. What led to the deadly Ceuta crossings – Moroccan pressure, a Spanish court ruling on deportations, or Spain’s regularisation policy – has been debated.
From the source
Italy's move to halt border-free travel with Spain after the deadly crossing is political, not practical, analysts say.
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