British travellers to Gibraltar would have to show their passports to Spanish border guards, under a deal with the EU to remove checks at its land border with Spain.
Details of a new system of dual checks at the Rock’s airport and port have been confirmed in a draft treaty published on Thursday.
The agreement is designed to bring certainty to the British overseas territory nearly a decade after the Brexit vote threw its status into doubt.
Pressure to reach a deal had been mounting ahead of the full application of new checks on passengers entering the passport-free Schengen zone in April.
Under the deal, Gibraltar will not officially join the zone, made up of 29 mainly EU countries including Spain.
Instead, Spanish authorities will carry out “second line” Schengen-style border checks in a special zone, after border checks conducted by Gibraltarian officials.
Spanish guards will have powers to arrest, search and interview travellers “where it is justified in the course of border control,” according to the treaty.
The system should eventually allow for the removal of border infrastructure at Gibraltar’s land border with Spain, which is crossed every day by around half of the Rock’s workforce.
The UK government is likening the new system to that in operation at London’s St Pancras station, where Eurostar passengers are checked by both British and French officials before boarding trains for the continent.
British nationals make up a huge share of visitors travelling to Gibraltar for tourism, representing 86.5% of all departures from its airport in 2024, according to the territory’s most recent tourism survey.
Credit: bbc.com
