Meloni contra Sánchez: la crisis de Ceuta ahonda la brecha entre Roma y Madrid

A crisis over migration has strained relations between Italy and Spain. The dispute began after around 78,000 migrants from Morocco arrived in Spain's North African exclave of Ceuta. In response, Italy introduced temporary border checks on arrivals from Spain, citing concerns over migrants travelling to Italy.

The Italian government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, suspended parts of the Schengen rules for non-EU nationals arriving from Spain until at least August 15, and possibly until the end of the month. Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez responded by threatening to impose restrictions on travellers from Italy unless Rome lifted its border controls by Sunday. According to the Times of India, Spain's checks began at midnight and were set to remain in place until September 7.

The two countries have disagreed over migration policy, with Meloni pushing for tighter EU migration controls. Italy said it would not accept "ultimatums or impositions" from Madrid, and would only reconsider its decision once it was certain there was no new migration wave, no security or terrorism risk to Italy and no irregular migrants heading towards European territory, as reported by Channel News Asia and Dawn.

Brief written by urgent.news from El Pais, Times of India, Channel News Asia, Le Monde English, Dawn — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.