Italy maintains Schengen suspension with Spain, citing ongoing security risks from Ceuta crisis

Italy holds firm on Schengen suspension

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told the parliamentary Schengen Committee on August 13 that Italy will not lift its suspension of the Schengen agreement with Spain before August 15, and only after all security risks are fully excluded. The suspension, activated nearly two weeks earlier following the migrant crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, is planned for the entire month unless withdrawn sooner. Piantedosi defended the move as grounded in national security, not political provocation.

The case of Ceuta is not a political speculation against Spain. This is not the logic that drives this government, whose sole objective is the protection of national security.

Piantedosi said the decision falls fully within European law, noting that other EU states have adopted and continue to adopt similar measures, including against Italy, without prompting objections or requests for further scrutiny.

Spanish retaliation and border results

Spain responded to Italy's Schengen suspension by introducing extraordinary controls on Italian passports and identity documents. Piantedosi characterized Madrid's move as retaliatory, saying that by Spain's own admission it followed a "substantially retaliatory logic." According to Madrid's count, 3,115 Italians have been stopped at Spanish airports and the border since the suspension was imposed.

Piantedosi reported concrete results from the restored Italian border controls: three arrests and the repulsion of 21 third-country citizens, including six Moroccans, found to be in Italy illegally. When PD deputy Rachele Scarpa asked how many of the six Moroccans had come from Ceuta, Piantedosi replied that it was "impossible to say." Five-Star Movement senator Marco Croatti questioned whether migrants could swim 14 kilometers from Ceuta to the Spanish coast. Piantedosi responded that international migration flows, especially when managed by criminal organizations, are not deterred by 14 nautical miles crossed "in some way."

Broader migration tensions

The border standoff coincides with other migration flashpoints. Italy sent a letter to the government of Friedrich Merz in Germany stating it would not take back any migrants from Germany, as they "could not be accommodated." Separately, the German NGO ship Humanity I, operated by SOS Humanity, recovered 73 migrants in the Mediterranean between Malta and Lampedusa and is scheduled to arrive in Ravenna on August 18, designated by the Interior Ministry as a safe port.

Piantedosi also warned of a "concrete risk" ahead of August 15: a new wave of arrivals in Ceuta and the potential exploitation of migrants for radicalization or recruitment through digital networks. Morocco's justice minister, in a separate development reported by ANSA, threatened to suspend the extradition agreement with Madrid.

Political reactions

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni posted a video on social media showing migrants being deported from an Italian plane, with a caption stating that expulsion operations for irregular immigrants continue and that the government will press on with border defense, security, and respect for rules. Opposition leader Elly Schlein criticized Meloni, saying that while the prime minister "plays at copying Trump and chasing Vannacci," Italians face rising fuel prices.

Carlo Fidanza, head of the Fratelli d'Italia delegation to the European Parliament, defended the government, calling left-wing criticism "instrumental and unfounded" and noting that five European governments are accelerating plans to open a deportation center in Uganda, which he cited as validation of the Italy-Albania protocol. The hearing, chaired by former minister Graziano Delrio, lasted nearly two hours and briefly reopened Parliament during the summer break.