Juan Franco, mayor of La Línea, in an interview in Wake up Andalusia, has expressed concern about the announcement of biometric controls at the Gibraltar fence from November 10, if an agreement is not reached first (between the United Kingdom, Spain and the European Union) on the Rock after Brexit. It is one of the issues addressed this Wednesday in a meeting held in Madrid with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, along with the rest of the mayors of Campo de Gibraltar and the Junta.
“It’s very worrying. Starting on November 10, biometric controls will begin to be applied at the border crossing. I’m afraid that this is going to end up causing queues and significant delays.. Two weeks ago I asked the Foreign Minister, the Government delegate and the subdelegate for information, and What I have received is silence in response. Yesterday, the minister promised to expedite some type of meeting, because I fear a circulatory collapse in my city, more all the problems that may arise for the workers and companies that are providing services in Gibraltar”, has pointed out.
Franco is pessimistic about the possibility of reaching an agreement within a month. “For now, what the minister told us is that, if there was an agreement, Gibraltar would become part of the Schengen area and those controls would not be necessary. Therefore, we would not have the problem we are talking about now.”
The mayor of La Línea has calculated that there could be up to fourteen hours of queuing for access to the rock if these controls are applied, while now “it took me a minute to enter on Sunday with the current controls.”
He assures that he has no answer to meet with the Minister of the Interior, the Government delegate in Andalusia or the Government subdelegate in the province of Cádiz and insists that “They can continue having meetings as long as the world exists,” but, he reiterates, that “on November 10, November 11, which is Monday, we are going to have a huge problem here.”
“What I want is for someone to sit down with me and explain to me what border control is going to look like.”
“In the last eight years, which is that it seems like Brexit was yesterday, no exceptional measures have been taken for this part of the national territory by anyone. We are in one of the most depressed areas of the European Union, not just Spain, we have a barbaric problem in the making, and we are talking about the sex of angels. We are tired of asking for investments, infrastructure, and no one listens to us. The famous special plan of Campo de Gibraltar, from 2018, the only thing it has brought to my city is a new judicial headquarters. For the rest, zero,” he insists.
Juan Franco identifies the agreement to control passage through the port and airport as the main obstacle in the negotiations. “According to what I hear from some and others, and these are issues that have already appeared in the media, the problem is the control of passage by Spanish police and customs agents.. The Government of Gibraltar understands that another formula can be sought, and the Government of Spain considers that, with the Schengen treaty, it is what it has to do,” he points out.
