Gibraltar border delays prompt UK protest to Spain

The UK government has raised "serious concerns" with Spain about long delays at the border with Gibraltar caused by a rise in vehicle searches.

The delays at the border followed a dispute earlier in the week

Gibraltar says Spain has created "deliberate" delays of up to six hours to vehicles travelling to and from the British territory since Friday.

Foreign Secretary William Hague called the Spanish Foreign Minister on Sunday. Spain has yet to respond publically.

It follows earlier accusations of Spanish incursions into British waters.

Spain disputes UK sovereignty over Gibraltar, a limestone outcrop on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, which has been ruled by Britain since 1713.

'Gridlock'
 On Friday and Saturday, Spanish customs officers stopped thousands of vehicles trying to leave the territory for Spain. On Sunday the delays switched to traffic trying to enter Gibraltar.

Gibraltar's government said Spain had engineered the delays to traffic.

There were delays of nearly six hours for those leaving Gibraltar on Saturday in temperatures of 30C (86F) as Spanish authorities searched "practically every vehicle".

A resident of Gibraltar, David Gibbins, told the BBC Saturday's delays had meant the territory - which has a population of under 30,000 - had been "gridlocked".

"People couldn't go to the beach, they couldn't go to their houses and they couldn't go to see their families," he said.

The Spanish government has inflicted these unnecessary delays on the elderly, children and the infirm in up to 30 degrees of heat”

Gibraltar government

He said border guards had been "checking every bit of paperwork", which he said never normally happened.

Gareth Gingell, who is a member of the activist group Defenders of Gibraltar, told the BBC that on Sunday the Guardia Civil had been "only letting one car through about every 30 minutes".

"It's taking about four hours for people to get through," he said.

On Sunday evening, the Foreign Office said that as well as the call between the two foreign ministers, the British ambassador in Madrid had raised concerns with the Spanish deputy foreign minister, and Britain had "registered our protest" with the Spanish ambassador in London.

It said it would not speculate on any links to the recent disagreement between Spain and Gibraltar over the placing of concrete blocks to create an artificial reef in Gibraltar's territorial waters.

"Our main concerns at the moment are restoring people's basic right to freedom of movement, and we want to work towards a speedy solution that will help to ease the very difficult situation and humanitarian issues at the border and enable a return to normal operations," said a spokesman.

Earlier, the government of Gibraltar said: "The Spanish government has inflicted these unnecessary delays on the elderly, children and the infirm in up to 30 degrees of heat.

"This torture has resulted in an ambulance being deployed to treat people with medical conditions. On Friday, for instance, a Spanish man had to be taken to hospital with chest pains."

It said the delays had affected tourists and "thousands" of people who go in and out of Gibraltar every day to work.

'Heavy-hand tactics'

Gibraltar's Deputy Chief Minister, Joseph Garcia, said: "Spain has again shown that she cannot resolve issues through normal diplomatic channels.

"Instead she merely resorts to heavy-hand tactics at the frontier. The behaviour of the Spanish authorities is unacceptable, un-European and illegal."

Fellow government ministers John Cortes and Steven Linares distributed water on Saturday afternoon to motorists caught in the queues at the border, and the Royal Gibraltar Police called in 10 additional officers to help with traffic control.

Earlier in the week, the Gibraltar government had commissioned a contractor to create an artificial reef by placing concrete blocks in the sea on Wednesday and Thursday.

But the Foreign Office said Spanish Guardia Civil vessels had "attempted to disrupt the activities" when they unlawfully entered British Gibraltar territorial waters.

The Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron, Royal Gibraltar Police and Gibraltar Defence Police were later deployed to prevent the disruption.

Spanish newspaper ABC reported that the Spanish government had made a formal complaint to the British about the work.

The government is reported to have said that dropping several dozen spiked concrete blocks into the water could tear fishing nets, scare fish away and cause environmental damage.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23482549#TWEET837391