First checks at Spanish airports for flights coming from Italy

The National Police carried out this Saturday morning the first random checks on flights coming from Italy at the airports of Barcelona and Madrid. However, the situation at El Prat was absolutely normal on this second Saturday of August, since among the various flights arriving from the transalpine country in the morning, only one from Rome and another from Milan that landed at noon had an additional check by the agents of the National Police Corps (CNP).

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These controls have been in force since midnight last night and until next September 7, and are the response of Pedro Sánchez’s Government to those introduced by Giorgia Meloni’s Government a few days ago due to the Ceuta migration crisis, although the people who crossed the border separating Morocco from Spain have not entered the peninsula and remain in the autonomous city.

Beyond normality, what exists among the passengers is ignorance, since several Italians arriving this Saturday in Catalonia to spend their holidays were unaware of what was happening. This is not the case for Andrea and Chiara, a young couple from Venice. She read last night the information pointing to the reestablishment of border control and the suspension of Schengen, but assures that she has traveled as other times, with total normality.

Carla, an Italian who lives in Genoa and has friends in Barcelona, also explains that her trip has gone with absolute normality. “We will see what happens on the way back, when boarding today they didn’t even ask me for documentation,” she says in conversation with this newspaper. The same has happened with passengers coming from Bologna.

A group of about twenty young Sardinians all dressed the same, wearing a black t-shirt with a photo of one of their friends riding a horse, with the slogan Gli amici dello sposo, wandered confused through the arrivals terminal looking for the bus driver they had hired. They didn’t know anything either. They come from a bachelor party and it was easy to identify Lo sposo by wearing pink among so many black t-shirts. They say the only control they had was in Italy before taking the plane, as usual.

Alessandro will spend a few days in Catalonia with his wife and two small children. There is no doubt he is from northern Italy, by his clothing. He explains that they underwent an identity check upon landing, but everything went smoothly. At first, he does not know the reason. When he learns that Spain has established the controls in response to Meloni’s, his wife adds: “Well done!”. “We have an excellent Government,” he ironically remarks immediately after.

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Police sources detail that the control is done randomly and aimed at people who are not from the European Union, from third countries, and who are suspected of having entered irregularly. They are done before entering the terminal, after getting off the plane. The police sources consulted emphasize that for Italian passengers, beyond the inconvenience, there is no problem, as what they seek are people who may be in an irregular situation within European borders.

More than one plane from Rome has landed this Saturday, but only on one, so far, has there been a check and for passengers who were not Spanish. On another flight from the Italian capital, a group of four young girls arrived. Just of legal age and very embarrassed, they ask what is happening and why they are questioned about the controls. One poses for television with her passport without fully understanding what is going on. The truth is that the presence of cameras in the arrivals terminal is the only thing that disrupts normality… and some attribute it to the arrival of some Barça signing. “Rodri must be about to arrive,” speculated a Catalan family just after crossing the door where the Civil Guard makes the last customs check before freely circulating on Spanish soil.

On the other side of the Mediterranean, there have indeed been controls and more annoying queues for Spanish passengers. Although those arriving today at El Prat have not gone through that circumstance. Ramon and Mònica spent a few days in Naples. When they traveled to the southern Italian city, the controls approved by Meloni’s Executive were already in force, but in their case, there was no impact or anything out of the ordinary, nor has there been today upon arriving in Catalonia. They traveled with their two teenage daughters, eager to leave the airport and get home.

According to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, the daily transit between Spain and Italy is about 86,000 people during August. Last year, Italian passengers set a record, with 5.6 million. If the Governments of Madrid and Rome do not back down, this summer taking a plane may be a little more annoying than usual.