Spain threatens retaliation against Italy if border controls not lifted

MADRID/ROME - Spain threatened on Aug 7 to impose reciprocal measures on travellers from Italy unless Rome lifts by Aug 9 the border controls it imposed last week following a mass influx of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

The Spanish government said Italy's decision to reintroduce checks on arrivals from Spain was "unjustified, contrary to the interests of the European Union and discriminatory against the Spanish population".

"If it fails to (remove the controls) before Sunday, Aug 9, Spain will be forced to adopt proportionate measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens," it said.

About 80 migrants died as 72,000 people rushed to cross the border.

Italy, which does not share a land border with Spain, justified its decision to partially suspend the EU's border-free Schengen arrangements with Spain to prevent any of the migrants who entered Ceuta from travelling on to Italy.

Madrid said the Italian move was based on "spurious arguments" that lacked any factual basis because the migrants who entered Ceuta irregularly could not gain access to the Schengen area. It added that most of them have already left the North African enclave and returned to Morocco.

Italy did not immediately comment on the latest Spanish statement.

The dispute between the two EU allies marks a new low in relations between Italy's conservative prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and Spain's Socialist leader, Pedro Sanchez.

Meloni has positioned herself as one of Europe's leading advocates of tighter immigration controls, while Sanchez has generally defended a more liberal approach and recently backed a large-scale regularisation programme for undocumented migrants.

In the Aug 7 statement, the Spanish government said Italy had registered the highest number of "irregular crossings in recent years", with figures that have been double those of Spain. REUTERS