Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is threatening to push Spain out from Europe’s Schengen open-borders area because Spain’s government stood back to allow a massive surge of African migrants break into its sovereign territory from Morocco.
Ceuta is presently going through its worst migrant crisis since 2021 after thousands of illegal migrants swam their way into Ceuta after the Spanish Supreme Court ruledon the nation’s Immigration Regulations, banning maritime migrant pushbacks at the border.
The dramatic situation, which began earlier this week, escalated on Thursday and thousands have crossed from Moroccan to European Union open borders zone territory in hours.
Ceuta’s local government issued numerous calls for help to Madrid’s central government, which finally deployed its Army on Thursday to help keep the peace. Most shockingly, The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that “only 55” first line law enforcement agents were present at Ceuta’s borders when the chaos began and they were, in any case, prevented from meaningful action by the Supreme Court ruling.
Italian Prime Minister Meloni reacted to the viral footage coming from the Spanish enclave, emphatically stating that the situation demonstrates, “once again,” that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses “a concrete threat to the security of Europe’s borders.
Meloni affirmed that Italy “will not stand by and watch.”
“We are convening the relevant bodies, and following these meetings, we are prepared to intervene with extraordinary measures to defend the borders and the safety of citizens, including the suspension of the Schengen Area with Spain,” Meloni said.
She went on: “On illegal immigration, we will not yield an inch: defending the borders, stopping human traffickers, and ensuring effective repatriations will continue to be the line of this Government”.
Top members of Meloni’s government expressed their support to the closure of Italy’s Schengen open borders area with Spain to counteract the developing and dramatic migrant flood. In a social media post, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini stressed that it is right for Italy to suspend the Schengen area to defend its borders and its people.
“Suspend Schengen. Defend the borders,” he added, sharing footage from Thursday’s migrant flood at Ceuta.
Similarly, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed his support of suspending the Schengen Area to Spain — stressing upon the dangers to national security posed by irregular and uncontrolled migration.
Tajani further noted that the images coming from Ceuta show how the Spanish government’s widely-reviled decision to grant mass amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants living in Spain is “profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking.”
The response from the Italian government, however, appears to have angered Spain’s pro-migrant socialist government.
Responding to Tajani, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares claimed that his Italian counterpart’s message is “unbecoming of the Foreign Minister of a partner and friendly country from which we expect European solidarity and not partisan demagoguery.”
“Today’s events are related to a court ruling, having nothing to do with what the tweet says,” Albares said. “I have summoned the Italian Ambassador tomorrow.”
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