The Ministry of the Interior has reported that throughout the morning of this Saturday it has extended random, “non-systematic” border controls to travelers coming from Italy to five other airports, which began at 00:00 hours in Madrid and Barcelona and will, in the coming hours, also be extended to the airports of Balearic Islands and Canary Islands.
The temporary suspension of the Schengen area with the transalpine country was announced by Moncloa on Friday after 21:00 hours following the Government of Giorgia Meloni having rejected the ultimatum from the Executive of Pedro Sánchez to lift the controls that, in turn, are applied there to citizens coming from Spain. Its entry into force was scheduled for that same midnight.
However, according to sources from the Ministry of the Interior confirmed to Efe, at 00:00 hours it only began to be applied at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airports. It has been throughout the morning that the controls have been extended to Málaga, Seville, Bilbao, Alicante, and Valencia.
The majority union of the National Police has denounced what it considers “an improvised measure, without planning” and in which “the impact on those who have to carry it out has not been considered.” It considers that “it only responds to a political vendetta against Italy” and that it does not take into account “the real needs” of the agents who bear the consequences of its application.
The main Italian airports of origin whose flights are subject to these controls are Fiumicino and Ciampino, in Rome; Malpensa, in Milan; Naples, Venice, and Florence, a list that, according to the Interior Ministry, will increase in the coming days.
A hundred National Police officers assigned to border posts are carrying out these controls, which they combine with the rest of their specialty functions.
The escalation of tension between Sánchez and Meloni reached its peak after Spain on Friday had asked Italy to “rectify” and “end the border controls” on its citizens that are applied following the massive arrival of immigrants to Ceuta from Morocco. When Rome ignored this request, Moncloa decided to apply the same measure reciprocally.
Between 5% and 10% of travelers
In air traffic, each plane is controlled by between two and four police officers, depending on the number of passengers, who verify the documentation of between 5% and 10% of the travelers. This means an average of about 15 people checked on flights operated with medium-sized aircraft and about 25 on larger capacity planes.
The Interior Ministry had already specified this Saturday that these controls are carried out randomly and not systematically on third-country nationals, checking compliance with the requirements established in the Schengen Borders Code.
The controls are carried out at the exit of the access gangway to the aircraft, without diverting the flow of passengers to an external border control area.
The reestablishment of controls also affects maritime traffic coming from Italy. This Saturday only the arrival in Spain of a cruise ship from that country is expected, which will dock tonight at the Cruise Terminal of the Port of Barcelona and whose travelers will also be subject to random controls,
