Following yesterday's issues at Malaga airport, the GSD says the actions of the Spanish authorities "have to be condemned in the strongest terms".

A statement from the GSD follows below:

Reports had reached the GSD which were then confirmed by GBC, that British passport holding passengers from  Gibraltar airport on their onward journey to catch a diverted flight from Malaga had been refused access by  Spanish police. The reports suggested that the reason for this refusal was because the boarding cards showed  the departure from Gibraltar and not Malaga. 

“The actions of the Spanish authorities have to be condemned in the strongest terms. This incident is not good  at various levels; primarily at a human but also, potentially, diplomatic and economic level given the dependence  Gibraltar has on a properly functioning airport. It also smacks of the recent occasion when diplomatic  correspondence, diverted by land through the Spanish frontier, was inexplicably held up at the Spanish side for  a number of days.” said Damon Bossino for the GSD.  

We note the Government’s press statement issued today but it is lacking in detail as to how the situation arose in  the first place. Has the matter been taken up with the Spanish authorities? Is there now a protocol in place to  deal with a situation which is likely to happen again - as Gibraltar flights will inevitably have non-Schengen  nationals on board - to prevent any further repeats? Who issued the ‘replacement boarding cards’ as referred to  by the Government?  

Whether this is an unfortunate incident of the officers on the ground being over-zealous in performing their  duties or a part of a diplomatic tightening of the screws, the fact is that there has been a huge inconvenience and  disruption visited upon innocent passengers – one of whom was a 4 month old baby flying to London for heart treatment.  

This behaviour is depressingly outrageous and unacceptable and is a far cry from the confidence building mood  music which should be a prelude to the agreement meant to usher in a period of shared prosperity.