Italy and Spain to remove migration border checks

Italy and Spain have agreed to remove tit-for-tat border checks introduced after a dispute over migration, diplomatic and government sources said on Friday.

Italian government sources said Rome's controls would remain in place for one more week so they lapse at the same time as Madrid's measures.

The agreement was reached after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held talks on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels, where migration was on the agenda, a Spanish diplomat said.

The dispute began in the summer, when Italy's interior ministry introduced controls on travellers from Spain after tens of thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa.

Italy and Spain do not share a land border, but passengers arriving on flights had been required to go through passport checks. Such checks are not normally used because both countries are members of the Schengen free-travel zone.