The chief inspector of the Spanish National Police has ordered officers not to allow Gibraltar residents and other non-EU passengers to travel from Malaga Airport over fears they are dodging proper security checks.
Those living on the British Overseas Territory often nicknamed “The Rock” have long enjoyed lax travel restrictions when crossing into Spain, which is a designated Schengen region – meaning residents can travel freely around it as well as 26 other European countries.
Gibraltar, much like the UK, is not included in the zone, however, and Spanish officials have grown frustrated by a clash between long-held ease of travel between the city and the rest of Spain and new rules that came into force on the border after Britain left the EU.
The 60-mile proximity of the Gibraltar and Malaga airports has now exacerbated the problem already raging in relation to the thousands of Gibraltans who cross into Spain for work every day.
Disruptive weather on the Iberian peninsula has diverted those planning to fly from “The Rock” to the nearby Spanish airport as a “cost-cutting measure” on behalf of the airlines, EuropaSur reports.
But the chief inspector of Spain’s National Police force has issued a clampdown on allowing Gibraltans to enjoy the ease of travel taken for granted by Spanish locals.
In a memo sent to border control officers on January 28, the chief inspector told them that only passengers who can prove that missing their flight would cause significant harm – such as missing a medical appointment or a family emergency – should be allowed to fly from Spain.
The document, seen by EuropaSur, also said that boarding passes issued in Gibraltar for redirected flights would not be accepted for entry to Malaga Airport as they “lack sufficient security measures and cannot be verified”.
It came after British Airways diverted two flights from Heathrow to Malaga in a 24-hour window after the prospect of landing in Gibraltar proved near-impossible due to 80km winds brought on by Storm Herminia.
Such last-minute diversions are thought by Spanish authorities to pose a larger risk to EU security, with British and non-British travellers potentially lacking the right documentation and visas for movement in the Schengen zone.
Airlines are supposed to ensure that such passengers are speedily bussed from Malaga to Gibraltar or issued the correct visas at the airport – but the 130 passengers onboard one of the planes rerouted to Spain on Monday were unable to do the latter due to the workforce strain of “numerous coinciding flights”.
The former was also not a prospect deemed to be safe by the disgruntled police chief inspector, who suggested it amounted to “allowing third-country nationals without required visas into Schengen space”.
Since Brexit formally came into force on February 1, 2020, Gibraltar residents have been the only non-EU nationals allowed into Spain without a passport in a deal that also benefits Spanish cross-border workers.
The Spanish chief inspector also caught headlines when he filed a complaint against the unofficial practice in November suggesting that not asking for passports from non-EU citizens amounted to a breach of the Schengen Borders Code, in force throughout the EU.