Italy has suspended the Schengen free-travel arrangement with Spain in response to the migrant crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, authorities announced Friday, marking an extraordinary measure within the European Union's passport-free zone.
Italy does not have a land border with Spain but the measure will impact people travelling by plane or boat between the two countries.
Italy's interior ministry said in a statement it had also agreed with Paris to strengthen controls along the Franco-Italian land border.
About 60,000 migrants have crossed from Morocco into Spain's tiny Ceuta territory in the past 24 hours, Ceuta's president said Friday, a figure that is equivalent to 70% of the population of the city in North Africa.
But roughly half of them have already made their way back voluntarily, the Spanish government said, after the sudden arrival of so many migrants triggered chaos and a humanitarian crisis.
Spain deployed its armed forces and additional police to restore order in Ceuta, which sits on the Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and has been a Spanish possession since 1580. On the Moroccan side of the border, security forces clashed with migrants. At least 57 migrants died, including some who drowned or were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier near a border checkpoint.
