The Diplomat
The Gibraltarian Government yesterday blamed Spain for the queues recorded in recent days at the border crossing, because it considers that the Spanish Government introduced changes in transit without prior consultation with the authorities of the Rock.
In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Gibraltar said that although throughout August there had been “sporadic queues” as a result of “the actions of the Spanish authorities”, since 24 August “new measures were introduced without prior notice involving the scanning of a significant number of passports, including those of Gibraltar Red Resident Card holders and some Spanish citizens”.
“These actions, according to the Gibraltar authorities, quickly led to the build-up of long queues, which inconvenienced tourists and cross-border workers”.
Fabian Picardo’s government also blames Spain for the queues at the Rock’s access points on Monday for having implemented “new changes”, saying that “Gibraltar had been given a fortnight’s notice”. The Spanish government blamed Gibraltar for the queues, for having narrowed the access channel for two-wheeled vehicles.
According to the Gibraltarian communiqué, on the Spanish side of the border, “four-wheeled vehicles were separated from two-wheeled vehicles, which caused serious delays at rush hour for workers crossing into Gibraltar, the majority of whom are Spanish nationals”.
He adds that, after implementing this measure, “Gibraltar was asked to guide the vehicles into separate lanes, which, he says, was physically impossible and would have endangered Gibraltar’s immigration officials”.
“These changes to traffic flow should be the subject of cross-border consultation and agreement, not imposition,” the Gibraltar government stressed, reproaching the competent Spanish authorities for “acting without proper consultation” and causing the queues on Monday, which had disappeared by yesterday morning.
The claims of the Gibraltarian authorities seek to refute those made on Monday from Cadiz by the acting foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, who maintained that the Gibraltar government knew in advance about the creation of the two-wheeled vehicle lane “to facilitate access for cross-border workers” and ensure greater “fluidity”.
Gibraltar, which in any case expresses its willingness to “adopt new traffic flow measures to separate two-wheelers from cars”, something it says it has already “been doing for years in its own staging area”, yesterday also released another statement saying it “plans a major redevelopment” of the pedestrian and vehicular entrances to the Rock through the Fence.
The redevelopment, the statement said, will consist of “installing a series of automatic passport control gates (e-gates) on the Gibraltar side, in addition to the manual controls, in order to allow smoother access for people in the event of a non-negotiated outcome of the Treaty”.
“The use of these electronic gates will allow more people to be processed at the same time,” the statement said, adding that the proposed electronic gate already has planning permission.
Gibraltar said in the statement issued yesterday afternoon that it now looks forward to working with the relevant Spanish authorities to establish a new system of traffic flow that is mutually beneficial. It adds that in response to the scanning of passports of Gibraltarian nationals at the border, “Gibraltar has had no choice but to commence reciprocal scanning, on a random basis, of the documentation of non-UK nationals”.
PSOE and PP reactions
The secretary general of the PSOE in Cádiz, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, yesterday welcomed the “return to normality” in access to Gibraltar, and, after calling for dialogue between the parties to achieve “an area of shared prosperity”, said: “That is the challenge and we will not allow specific episodes to cloud the good relations of coexistence that have been built up over the last few decades”.
For his part, the mayor of Algeciras and PP senator, José Ignacio Landaluce, blamed the queues on Monday on the forthcoming elections in Gibraltar, and accused Picardo of “using fireworks”. “It is a forced provocation,” he said.
“To win elections in Gibraltar there is nothing better than to say that I attack the Spanish and the interests of the Spanish,” said Landaluce, who insisted that the chief minister is “using aggression against Spanish fishermen, cross-border workers or Customs Surveillance for his election campaign”.
