Spain and Italy Trade Border Checks in Rare Schengen Spat

Spain announced on Friday that it would introduce temporary border checks on travellers arriving from Italy, in direct retaliation for Rome's decision to suspend passport-free travel under the Schengen agreement. The move escalates a rare dispute between two European Union member states that do not share a land border, triggered by the mass migration rush into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta.

Italy imposed its own border controls after about 78,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in an unprecedented and deadly influx, according to the BBC. France 24 reported that the rush left at least 100 people dead, and that the Spanish government had warned Rome it would impose entry checks on visitors unless the controls were lifted by Sunday.

The checks are temporary, but they mark a significant rupture in the Schengen system, which guarantees free movement across most of the European Union. For Rome, the dispute has become a test of the government's resolve on migration, a file that has defined its political identity at home and its standing in Brussels.