Support for residents ‘turned back’ at airport
British Embassy offers help in Spanish border controversy
PASSENGERS arriving at Alicante airport from Britain have continued to be refused entry to Spain despite maintaining they have the paperwork to prove they are resident.
Until Tuesday, March 30, only Spanish nationals and expats legally resident were allowed into the country in a Covid-19 travel clampdown – and those arriving for other reasons were returned to the UK on the same plane they arrived on. However, some arrivals stopped by immigration officials and border police at the airport and sent back to Britain have included passengers with documents they insist showed they were resident in Spain under the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, including appointments to pick up the new TIE residence card.
The British Embassy in Madrid said diplomats were ready to fight the corner of people carrying the correct paperwork to show they were legally resident.
A spokesperson for the Embassy said: “We are aware that a number of UK nationals were turned back from Alicante airport at the weekend and we have been in touch with the authorities.
“If a UK national has been prevented from entering Spain and wishes to make a complaint, they should contact the Spanish ministry of interior or the Spanish ombudsman.
“If you are a UK national who has been turned away and you hold sufficient documentary evidence to prove you have legal residency in Spain – as per our travel advice – we stand ready to take this up with the Spanish authorities.”
The Embassy also warned: “It is crucial that when making plans to travel from the UK to Spain, a UK national must make sure that they meet both the requirements to leave the UK and those to enter Spain, bearing in mind they are not the same. Ultimately, the decision on whether to grant entry into Spain is made by Spanish border officials.”
Until March 30, the Embassy clarified that only those who were legally resident in Spain were permitted entry.
The situation changed on that date.
“Spanish rules set out that entry to Spain will currently only be granted to those passengers who can demonstrate that their journey falls under one of the allowed exemptions,” they noted.
People who believe they were wrongly turned away because they did have documentary evidence can contact the Embassy via a website link which will be provided by emailing Costa Blanca News via the address at the end of this report.
Last week CBN told of passengers being turned away on Friday, March 26 – and a reported 40 arrivals on a Ryanair flight from Manchester suffered the same fate with the flight held on the ground on Monday, March 29 until they were reboarded – any hold baggage remaining in Spain until a later flight.
An expat from Jávea, flying to Manchester, said the pilot apologised and said there would be a short delay because some people were being reboarded.
“A few minutes turned into half an hour; then, in dribs and drabs, couples and individuals were getting on the flight,” she said.
She noted that some of those refused entry complained they were ‘turned around in immigration’ and could not get through passport control because of the incorrect documentation.
She said one woman from Liverpool had arrived for a property transaction but did not have residency and was turned away – and a couple said they had an appointment, with the letter, to collect their TIE cards from the foreigners’ office in Alicante but were refused entry.
“In all, I think we sat there about an hour; tensions were running high in the cabin because everyone was worried about whether they had the right documentation when they returned to Spain,” she added.
A Costa Blanca arrival late on Sunday night was allowed into the country. He told CBN he had applied for residency and carried a folder of documentation with him to show his home was in Spain.
“It was a close-run thing, for a moment I didn’t think they were going to let me into the country,” he said. “It was quite full on at immigration.”
The up-to-date rules of entry are available on the ‘travel advice’ page of the official website ‘gov.uk’ and visitors can sign up for alerts regarding any changes.
The link is www.gov.uk/ foreign-travel-advice/spain
The Spanish government has released updated information for travellers from Britain.
They noted that ‘since Brexit, the UK is considered a non-EU country’, therefore British citizens ‘can’t travel to Spain at the moment in general terms’.
“This is a temporary regulation which restricts third country nationals entering Spain for public health reasons due to the Covid-19 health crisis,” they noted.
The advice states that there are ‘exceptions’ and these travellers should carry ‘the relevant documents’.
The exemptions include ‘residents of the EU’ who are travelling to their place of residence; long-term Spanish visa holders; health care professionals and carers who travel for work; transport workers; diplomats, military and members of international organisations; students with permission or Spanish visas and medical insurance; highly qualified professionals in some justified cases; people who are travelling for essential and justified family matters; and force majeure cases, necessary situations or humanitarian reasons.