ALBAWABA – Italy, Finland, and Denmark, have implemented border checks on travelers coming from Spain as more Moroccan migrants cross into the Ceuta exclave.
In what looks to be a de facto suspension of the European Schengen free-travel agreement with the Czech Republic officially calling for Spain’s Schengen membership to be reviewed and suspended.
Spain was not happy about these comments, stating that Ceuta was not a part of the Schengen area, therefore the border checks and control were unnecessary; and, after Italy refused to remove them, put its own border checks on Italian visitors to Spain.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani commented on the checks saying his country had been afraid of a “risk of a new wave of arrivals in Ceuta”;
“We’re not waging any kind of ‘battle’ against Spain – we’re simply carefully controlling arrivals,” he said.
“Instead of worrying about us, Spain should worry about Morocco: that’s where the problems are coming from, certainly not from our controls.”
A 100+ people were stopped attempting to make their way into Ceuta yesterday through the border town of Fnideq, according to Moroccan security sources cited by Spanish media and news agency Reuters.
This, only two weeks after 78,000 people attempted the same, raising concerns regarding illegal immigration across Europe.
