Spain starts border checks on Italy after row over migrant influx

MADRID - Spain on Aug 8 started border checks on travellers arriving from Italy, responding to similar measures Rome imposed following an unprecedented migrant rush into the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta.Madrid had announced on Aug 7 it would proceed with the heightened controls, citing “persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy – deepening a row between the EU partners and NATO allies.Spain’s left-wing government has complained that Italy’s hard-right government on July 31 unfairly imposed one month of border checks on travellers from Spain – suspending the EU’s Schengen Area visa-free travel arrangements – because of the Ceuta influx.More than 70,000 migrants had crossed from Morocco into the Ceuta enclave on July 30 and 31, though almost all of them subsequently ret