Why Italy and Spain are checking each other's passports

What changed

Italy brought back checks on 31 July at its internal air and sea borders with Spain, which means flights and ferries arriving from Spanish airports and ports. It has extended them every 15 days since: on 31 August, on 15 September and on 1 October. The current period runs until 16 October.

Spain introduced mirror checks on travellers from Italy on 8 August and has renewed them on the same two-week rhythm.

Schengen normally means no border checks between member countries. A government can bring them back for a limited time if it sees a serious threat to public policy or internal security, and it has to notify the European Commission.

How it started: Ceuta

On 30 and 31 July more than 50,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast. About 48,000 had gone back to Morocco within a day, and at least 67 people died, according to Il Post and ANSA. In May 2021 a similar crisis brought about 10,000 people into the city.

What each government says

Italy's notifications to the Commission cite threats to public order and internal security and the management of migration flows. Italian officials have also spoken of the risk that people linked to terrorism could travel on from Spain.

Spain rejects that reading. Foreign minister José Manuel Albares called Italy's extension "absurd, useless and a disgrace" on 15 September, in remarks reported by Europa Press.

According to Radio Radicale's Brussels correspondent, the European Commission has said it sees no secondary movements of migrants inside Schengen linked to Ceuta.

The fine print

The rules changed in 2024. Under the revised Schengen Borders Code (Regulation 2024/1717, article 25a), checks against a foreseeable threat can last up to six months at a time and be renewed for up to two years in total, with one more year in exceptional cases.

Both governments have chosen to renew in two-week blocks, well inside that limit.

Two answers to migration

The row sits on top of two opposite approaches.

Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government has focused on stopping departures, with agreements with Tunisia and Libya and centres in Albania. The Albanian centres opened in October 2024. Since March 2025 the one at Gjader has been used to hold people already under expulsion orders. Between 80 and 90 people were held there in the first months of 2026, according to Avvenire and Il Fatto Quotidiano, far fewer than the government originally planned.

Pedro Sánchez's Socialist government has gone the other way on legal status. In 2026 it opened an extraordinary regularisation for undocumented migrants who were already living in Spain before 1 January 2026. In October 2024 Sánchez told parliament that Spain had to choose "between being an open and prosperous country or a closed and poor one".

Irregular arrivals have fallen in both countries since 2023.

The numbers side by side

Italy's figures count arrivals by sea. Spain's count all irregular entries, including by land into Ceuta and Melilla, so the two series are close but not identical.

Where Italians go

In 2025 Spain was the first destination for Italians moving abroad: about 13,000 people, 12.2% of the total, according to Istat. More than a third of them (34.9%) were born outside Italy.

What happens next

Italy's checks run until 16 October unless Rome renews them again, and Spain's run on the same two-week cycle. Under the 2024 rules either government could keep them in place for up to two years.