Massive queues built up at Gibraltar’s land border with Spain after police insisted on checking the passports and other travel documents of non-EU citizens individually.
Video footage showed huge lines of people seeking to cross to get into Spain, as well as long tailbacks of cars.
The delay stemmed from a decision by Policia Nacional officers to check the paperwork of all non-EU nationals, including Gibraltarians with red identity cards, reported the Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper.
Those not in possession of red ID cards had their passports scanned and stamped, and were required to show proof of a hotel booking and return travel. Anyone unable to do so was turned away.
The queue contained people from Gibraltar, visitors from Britain who had arrived on a British Airways flight, as well as tourists from other nationalities and cross-border workers.
Once they reached the frontier building, Spanish and other EU nationals were directed to automated border control gates or simply waved through.
However, the sluggish pace of checks on non-EU residents created a bottleneck at the entrance, meaning everyone was forced to queue together.
A report aired by broadcaster GBC News yesterday said similar incidents had happened before, though even by those standards it was an “exceptionally long queue” which stretched all the way along the airport overhang.
One British tourist complained: “There’s no facility for anyone with mobility problems at all.”
At about 6pm the line began moving more quickly, clearing rapidly – but almost simultaneously, the vehicle queue began building up, with pictures shared on social media by the Rock’s Borders and Coastguard Agency showing cars waiting for several hours afterwards.
Gibraltar, which is a British Overseas Territory, ceased to be part of the European Union on January 31, 2020.
During the subsequent transition period, which ran until December 31, 2020, Gibraltar was still for most purposes treated as an EU territory.
However, because it is in not now part of the Schengen Travel Area, free movement to and from the bloc is no longer permitted.
Negotiations between the EU and the UK over a deal with respect to Gibraltar are ongoing, but are believed to be deadlocked over future rules relating the policing of passport control at Gibraltar airport.
Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Spain, has been in British hands since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, but Madrid has never reliquished its sovereignty cllaim.
