Pedestrians face lengthy border queues as Spain checks non-EU travellers

Pedestrians crossing into Spain faced lengthy queues on Friday afternoon as Spanish police carried out meticulous checks on non-EU citizens. 

The queue stretched from the border to the air terminal and a Chronicle journalist at the scene took an hour to cross. It was still building up even then. 

The delay arose because Policia Nacional officers were carrying out detailed checks on the travel documents of all non-EU nationals, including Gibraltarians with red ID cards. 

Those without red ID cards had their passports scanned and stamped and were asked to provide proof of a hotel and return travel. 

Those who could not provide that evidence to the immigration officers were turned back.

In the queue were people from Gibraltar, others from the UK who had arrived on a BA flight, tourists of multiple nationalities including Spain and cross-border workers. 

Once inside the frontier building though, Spanish and other EU nationals were pointed by immigration officers to automated border control gates or waved through with a cursory glance. 

But the slow checks on the non-EU nationals created a bottleneck at the entrance to the building, forcing everyone to queue together outside.