España aplicará controles fronterizos temporales a visitantes procedentes de Italia

The checks, which come ‘amid the persistent irregular migration pressure’ facing Italy, will starts at midnight on Saturday. Photograph: Antonio Sempere/AP View image in fullscreen The checks, which come ‘amid the persistent irregular migration pressure’ facing Italy, will starts at midnight on Saturday. Photograph: Antonio Sempere/AP Spain to introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy Move comes in response to Rome imposing similar measures after mass migration rush to Ceuta

Spain has announced it will introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy in response to Rome imposing similar measures after a mass rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta.

The checks, which come “amid the persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy, will start at midnight on Saturday and last until 7 September, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement.

Hours earlier, Spain threatened Italy with countermeasures if it did not swiftly lift its own border checks, drawing a rebuff from Rome.

The rare spat between the EU and Nato allies came after tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco to Spain’s north African territory on 30-31 July in an unprecedented, deadly rush.

The scenes infuriated EU members that back a hard line on irregular immigration, including Italy, which imposed border checks on people arriving from Spain for one month.

The Spanish government criticised the measure on Friday as “unfair, contrary to the EU’s interests and discriminatory for the Spanish population”.

Foreign minister José Manuel Albares described it as “a torpedo fired at the hull of European unity”.

“We urge the government of Italy to rectify, put an end to the checks and treat Spaniards like other European citizens,” he added.

He threatened “proportional measures” in response by Sunday if Italy failed to comply.

Within hours, the government of Italy’s far-right prime minister…