Due to the influx of migrants, Italy calls for the suspension of Spain’s membership in the Schengen Agreement.
Due to the influx of migrants, Italy calls for the suspension of Spain’s membership in the Schengen Agreement.
2026-07-31
Shafaq News – Rome
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called for the suspension of Spain’s membership in the European Schengen Area, which allows for free movement without internal borders between member states, due to the influx of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco into Spain.
Meloni said, “Italy is holding meetings with the relevant authorities, and once the meetings are over, we will be ready to act, including taking exceptional measures, such as suspending the Schengen Agreement with Spain.”
She described the scenes of migrants arriving in the Spanish city of Ceuta as “shocking,” after most of the migrants, including children, were forced to swim to reach the Spanish enclave, stressing that “Italy will not stand idly by.”
Meloni’s statement came hours after similar remarks by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who called for Spain to be excluded from the Schengen Area, arguing that “illegal and uncontrolled immigration poses a threat to national security.”
Tajani noted that “the Madrid government’s decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants was a grave mistake,” considering that it “contributed to encouraging human trafficking.”
Media reports, citing law enforcement sources in the Spanish city of Ceuta in North Africa, stated that more than 20,000 Moroccan migrants crossed the land border into the city without encountering resistance from Moroccan security forces, according to them.
The reports stated: “Entire families walked around the border breakwater in Tarajal to enter Spanish territory, and the Civil Guard was unable to stop their advance.”
Reports indicated that after the majority of the migrants had crossed, the police intervened in an attempt to contain their flow and direct them towards warehouses used as temporary detention centers.
In the same context, the Spanish news agency EFE reported the discovery of 15 bodies off the coast, believed to be those of people who tried to swim from Morocco to Ceuta, explaining that the bodies were handed over to members of the Spanish Civil Guard to conduct autopsies and determine the exact cause of death.
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