Shafaqna Pakistan: Spain conducted checks on nearly 200 travellers arriving from Italy at six major airports on the first day of border controls reinstated amid a dispute with Rome over irregular migration.
According to Spain’s Interior Ministry, authorities checked 199 passengers travelling on 12 flights from Italy to airports in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, Alicante and Valencia late Saturday.
Spain announced on Friday that the temporary border controls on passengers arriving by air and sea from Italy would remain in place until September 7. Madrid said the measures followed Italy’s decision to introduce its own controls in response to the arrival of around 72,000 migrants in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on July 30.
Italy suspended the EU’s Schengen free-movement arrangements with Spain from August 1 and said its border controls would remain in effect until at least August 15.
Rome said the measure would not affect Spanish or other EU citizens travelling to Italy and would instead involve targeted checks on non-EU nationals arriving from Spain by air or sea.
“We hope to be able to lift the suspension soon, as soon as there is no longer any risk,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Sunday.
The Schengen Area allows passport-free travel across 29 European countries, although member states can temporarily reintroduce border controls on security or public-order grounds.
Source: Express Tribune
