Italy condemns Spain’s ‘unacceptable’ border controls as Ceuta fallout intensifies

<p>Travellers caught up in migration row as Madrid introduces checks on visitors from Italy in retaliation for Rome’s move</p><p>Italy’s foreign minister has called Spain’s decision to impose retaliatory checks on travellers from Italy “incomprehensible and completely unacceptable” as people making their way between the two EU countries were left grappling with the effects of the escalating feud.</p><p>Spain started <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/07/spain-to-introduce-temporary-border-checks-on-visitors-from-italy">carrying out spot checks</a> on visitors from Italy at midnight on Saturday. The tit-for-tat move came after Rome infuriated Madrid <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/04/eu-criticises-spain-migrant-plan-ceuta-crisis-meeting">by launching checks</a> on 1 August for travellers from Spain in response to the recent influx <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/08/we-have-no-tents-or-blankets-ceuta-migrants-struggle-to-survive-brutal-heat-and-freezing-nights">of about 72,000 people</a> into Ceuta, a Spanish territory in north Africa.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/09/italy-condemns-spain-border-controls-ceuta-fallout-intensifies">Continue reading...</a>