Gibraltar border controls with Spain lifted
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Madrid (AFP) — Thousands of workers crossing daily between Spain and Gibraltar will enter a new era of easier travel on Wednesday, as border checks that have long been a source of tension are lifted.
Home to only around 40,000 people, the tiny self-governing British territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula relies on about 15,500 daily cross-border workers from Spain, who make up nearly half of its workforce.
During rush hours, long lines can form at the land border and documents are checked — especially during periods of tension between Britain and Spain, which claims sovereignty over Gibraltar.
But under an agreement reached between Brussels and London following Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU), border controls between Gibraltar and Spain will be eliminated from 15 July.
A smoother border will make it easier for Gibraltar businesses to recruit and retain workers who live in Spain, as the “hassle” of crossing the frontier can be “significant,” said Owen Smith, head of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses.
“It’s been a big factor in retention, and certainly a fluid border is going to make life much easier,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP), calling it “very, very positive.”
The agreement, which will be signed on Tuesday in Brussels, will align Gibraltar with the rules of Europe’s passport-free Schengen travel area.
It was reached after years of talks between Spain, Britain and the EU.
Travelers arriving from outside the Schengen zone will still have to show their passports to officials at Gibraltar’s airport and port.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is set to visit the frontier zone on Wednesday, where workers have in recent weeks taken down the old chain-link fencing between Gibraltar and Spain.
He has hailed the new arrangements as bringing down “the last wall” inside the EU, saying they would create a zone of shared prosperity.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has described the agreement as removing “the physical barriers of a bygone era of friction” while keeping “the keys to our own front door.”
