Italy has temporarily suspended its free-travel pact with Spain after 60,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa suddenly poured into the Spanish city of Ceuta last week — rattling EU leaders.
Italy’s dramatic move, announced by Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, is meant to prevent migrants from entering her country after they flooded into the Spanish territory following socialist leader Pedro Sanchez’s immigration-friendly policies.
She said Italy is taking “an extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation.”
Thousands of migrants crossing the border from Morocco to Ceuta, Spain, on July 31, 2026. Anadolu via Getty Images
The death toll from the mass border crossing has risen to 72 people. ZUMAPRESS.com
Migrants celebrating after entering Ceuta on July 31, 2026. JALAL MORCHIDI/EPA/Shutterstock
Spanish soldiers escorting migrants out of Ceuta on Aug. 2, 2026. AP Photo/Bernat Armangue
Meloni is suspending her country’s part in the Schengen Agreement, which allows free-flowing travel between 29 EU countries, with Spain for one month.
Ceuta, a Spanish city of about 83,000 people surrounded by Morocco on the Mediterranean coast, is one of only two land borders between the EU and Africa.
Images of tens of thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa trying to breach fences and swim around jetties to get into Spain’s city of Ceuta have raised fear in Europe of a new immigration crisis.
In response, Spain installed a 1,600-foot floating barrier to make it harder to get around the border. Officials also said most of the migrants who made it across were expelled back to Morocco.
Italy went the farthest in its response, but the leaders of Finland and Denmark also criticized Spain for failing to protect its borders, and France stepped up its border checks at Spanish crossings.
The interior ministers of 22 EU countries are slated to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss border security.
Sanchez hit back at the criticism and implied that it was a manufactured crisis.
“In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarizing and unlawful reaction,” he said.
One political ally in Spain went so far as to suggest Israel and the Trump administration were to blame for the Ceuta breach — as punishment for Sanchez’s strong stance on Gaza and refusal to allow the US to use Spanish air bases for planes headed to the Middle East for the Iran war.
