Chai With Priya Freedom of a different kind

Immigration controls being lifted at the frontier last week has been the source of much talk on social media and in social circles.

Many people were down at the frontier on Tuesday night, awaiting midnight so that they could cross into Spain without the need for passports and ID cards for the first time.

Many others have taken their time to venture across, experiencing this new era and future for Gibraltar and Spain in their own time.

And while there are understandable concerns about the ability to cross without any formal passport controls, for many others this represents a border fludity that was not afforded to them over the years.

A friend of mine is working in Gibraltar and has a work permit for Gibraltar. For years he’s lived on the Rock but has been unable to visit Spain unless he’s had a Schengen visa in place, an expensive and time-consuming process that doesn’t always work out.

He can see Spain, he works alongside many Spanish colleagues, but has been unable to go into Spain with ease.

The only way he was able to go to Morocco was on the ferry from Gibraltar, and his visits were always dependent on what the ferry schedule was like.

A Moroccan woman, who lives in Gibraltar to care for her elderly mother, has been able to meet with her brother for the first time outside of Morocco and he just lives in La Linea.

Our families might not have been affected by the closed frontier era, but we were restricted at a time when everyone else was able to cross into Spain freely.

Like them, there are many other immigrants who live on both sides of the frontier who share similar stories.

For the chefs working at an Indian takeaway in Gibraltar, it was the first time they were able to visit the La Linea fair and walk around and enjoy themselves.

For my cousin who lives in Torremolinos, it means he will be able to come to Gibraltar to see my father after many years.

When I was a child, there were many of us who were stuck in Gibraltar without being able to go into Spain.

I was born in Gibraltar but, at the time, immigration controls were so strict that children born to immigrants were automatically given their parents’ nationality.

For me and my brother and many friends, that meant we had Indian passports. For friends, it was Moroccan passports.

But although we were born in Gibraltar, lived on the Rock and went to school here, we were not able to cross the frontier into Spain.

School ski trips, birthday parties, camping trips with the Guides or Scouts were all off-limits because of a document that restricted our movement, meanwhile our friends were able to cross into Spain freely because the frontier with Spain opened in 1982.

It was when Sir Peter Caruana became Chief Minister these children born on the Rock were able to claim their rights to citizenship and nationality under his Government.

I was 12 years old when I first remember being able to cross into Spain using my own British passport.

After months of waiting, meetings with lawyers and collecting paperwork, I finally had my first British passport in my hands.

Unable to cross into Spain themselves, my parents and brother dropped me off at the frontier and I went across with a member of staff at my family business.

My first visit was to the La Linea fair with my cousins and then a sleepover at their home in San Roque.

Previously, my dad would take me to see the fair from the frontier and I would cry, begging to be allowed to go, so this felt like all my wishes were granted at once.

Since I was 12 years old, the fair has become one of my favourite things to do every summer and, in my mind, it is only fitting that the border controls were lifted at around the same time of the year that I received my passport so many years ago.

And while it is something that has become as natural as living and breathing, I no longer have to go into a mad rush to dig around my bag for my passport and ID card while driving or walking across into Spain or back into Gibraltar.

I hope it makes it easier for those people working in my business to be able to go home as soon as possible when they finish work and not having to queue for ages after a long shift on their feet.

I also hope it helps to heal those wounds inflicted on local families from when the border was closed, to when Gibraltar would get grid-locked with traffic due to the long queues at the border and how the prospect of these queues would collectively make us feel like we were at the mercy of those controlling the border.