The Diplomat
Several packages of unknown material, weighing approximately 150 kilos, have been detained for a week at the Gibraltar border because the United Kingdom wants to pass them off as diplomatic bags, although their final destination is not a diplomatic mission, but the British Governor’s palace on the Rock, according to the website Noticias Gibraltar.
The publication points out that it is not known what the packages contain, because obviously they have not been opened by the Spanish authorities and their contents have not been declared, only that they are several and heavy and that the United Kingdom is pressuring Spain to let them pass secretly, under the cover of being considered diplomatic bags.
The problem, he points out, is that a diplomatic bag is a mail mechanism for official documentation, historically recognised and respected between countries, and is always addressed to embassies or diplomatic missions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and not, as in this case, to the British Governor of Gibraltar.
Noticias Gibraltar stresses that the issue is important because, like any action that affects international law -and this is a case that affects a Schengen border and therefore the European Union- it establishes a precedent that can be invoked in the future and, therefore, all countries respect, but at the same time are very scrupulous about the exact fulfilment of what is properly a diplomatic bag.
Furthermore, in this specific case, he says, it is not sufficiently explained why these packages appear at the fence, coming from the British Foreign Office by land and destined for the UK Governor’s office on the Rock, when they have an air service linking London with Gibraltar.
The packages remained at the border yesterday awaiting instructions. The UK argues that the overland shipment through the fence was a mistake, but insists and presses diplomatically for permission to pass through to Gibraltar.
For its part, the Spanish Foreign Ministry remains silent and, when asked directly by Noticias Gibraltar, Spanish diplomatic sources declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Customs Service is awaiting instructions regarding the 150 kilos of packages, of unknown content, which the UK wants to pass through Gibraltar as if it were a diplomatic bag.
What a diplomatic bag is, how it is managed and how it is protected is regulated by Article 27 of the Vienna Convention, ratified in Spain on 18 April 1961 and published in the Official State Gazette on 24 January 1968, which reflects and updates the historical tradition in this respect.
A diplomatic pouch is used by the Government of a country to communicate, for official purposes, with the missions or consulates of the State. This official correspondence of the diplomatic mission is inviolable, cannot be opened or retained, must be provided with external signs that identify it as such and ‘may only contain diplomatic documents and objects for official use’.
