Italy suspends Schengen with Spain after Ceuta influx

Italy said Friday it had suspended its Schengen agreement with Spain, following the influx of migrants into Madrid's Ceuta enclave in north Africa, bordering Morocco. The measure will impact people travelling by plane or boat between the two countries, according to The Guardian.

The suspension comes as the EU grapples with one of its largest migrant crises in recent years after about 60,000 people entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa in recent days. Officials said Saturday that at least 67 people had died during the influx, France 24 reported.

A majority of EU countries called on Saturday for emergency talks on the sudden inflow of tens of thousands of migrants into Spain's enclave, The Local Italy reported. The Italian government is considering suspending the EU Schengen agreement with Spain in light of the crisis, France 24 noted.

For Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the suspension carries practical weight. The region's airport at Ronchi dei Legionari and the port of Trieste serve as gateways for travellers and freight moving between Italy and the wider Schengen area, including routes that connect to Spain. While the wire does not specify which Italian ports or airports will enforce the new checks, the measure's scope — covering air and sea travel between the two countries — touches the same infrastructure that links this border region to the rest of Europe.

The suspension is the latest in a series of Schengen border reinstatements across Europe this summer. France tightened border checks and increased police numbers at its Spanish frontier, France 24 reported, and several EU countries have called for talks on the crisis. The Local Italy noted that some member states have even raised the question of whether Spain could be excluded from the zone entirely, though that remains legally untested.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain's prime minister, has decried a 'violation of territorial integrity' as other EU countries criticise Madrid over the incident, The Guardian reported. Madrid said Thursday it would deploy soldiers to Ceuta to ensure security after hundreds of migrants entered the enclave, mainly by swimming, with nine deaths reported at that stage. The death toll has since risen to at least 57, according to The Guardian's later reporting.

For a region like Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which sits on Italy's eastern border and has long experience with Schengen's internal checks, the suspension underscores how quickly the bloc's open-border arrangements can unravel under migration pressure. The region's own border with Slovenia — a Schengen frontier since 2007 — has periodically seen reinstated controls during past crises, a pattern the foreign press has documented. Whether Italy's suspension with Spain will extend eastward remains unclear from the wire, but the precedent is set.