Security rests on cooperation, not fences

Every Gibraltarian of a certain age will recognise that feeling when you cross the border from Spain into Gibraltar.

Let’s call it a homecoming, though it goes a bit deeper than that, a return to a safe and familiar space.

It’s the flip side of another sentiment, the sense of a wider horizon and possibility when we travel in the opposite direction in search of new experiences.

It’s probably rooted in the closed-border years. I still remember the first time I walked across with my parents into La Línea as a boy shortly after the border reopened, and the drive to Estepona in a hired car.

Who would’ve thought a trip to a beach chiringuito could feel so exciting and edgy?

And later, the relief of returning home.

I was thinking about this after a recent conversation in the context of the treaty, which aims to remove physical immigration controls between Spain and Gibraltar, replacing them with dual Gibraltar and Schengen checks at the airport instead.

A fluid land border without immigration or customs checks will remove an age-old source of friction and ensure fluidity that will open new opportunities for communities on either side.

But for many, removing border controls as we’ve known them all our lives raises concerns about security. The fear is that without them, it’ll be easier for wrongdoers to enter with criminal intent.

The Gibraltar Government has responded by reassuring the public that security will, if anything, be strengthened under the new arrangements. These will include digital surveillance such as facial recognition and a permanent, visible presence of our law enforcement agencies at the border, a natural bottleneck for both vehicles and pedestrians.

Concerns about imported crime are understandable, but they risk overlooking some key realities.

Let’s start with the obvious.

Gibraltar’s court diary and recent high-profile cases leave no room for doubt. From petty thieves and wife beaters to violent drunkards, burglars, fraudsters and pedophiles, we have our own home-grown offenders. That alone should give us pause for reflection as a community.

Not that the border fence has ever stopped criminality.

Europeans, criminals included, already have ID cards and passports and can cross at will through the usual immigration channels.

It’s worth remembering too that even with the current border, illegal crossings have long been a reality.

Just last Thursday, a Spanish man appeared before the Magistrates’ Court charged with entering Gibraltar via the border fence at the eastern end of British Lines Road. He damaged it in the process before being arrested by the Gibraltar Defence Police in a restricted area of the runway.

If this weren’t such a common occurrence, it might even have been newsworthy on a slow day.
Security in the modern age works differently.

Take counterterrorism, the top priority for any Western law enforcement agencies including ours.

In this sphere, the border is of little use. Prevention and deterrence are key, and intelligence and cooperation are the real currency.

In this context, Spain and its law enforcement agencies - alongside those of Morocco - provide a vital component of our security in Gibraltar.

It is they who keep a close eye on potential threats in this region.

We saw a real-world example of that in 2018 when Spanish police, acting on information from the UK and France, arrested a suspected Al Qaeda cell that may have been targeting Gibraltar.

There have been other well-documented examples, the IRA incident and the Argentine saboteurs detained in Spain during the Falklands War, to name two.

Here’s another recent case, should there be any doubt.

In November 2018, the Royal Gibraltar Police launched a joint investigation with Spain’s Policía Nacional after detecting a significant increase in Moroccan travellers arriving in Gibraltar from Casablanca and Tangier using UK short-stay tourist visas.

The investigation eventually uncovered that over 130 Moroccan nationals had been trafficked into Spain in this way by an organised criminal organisation. It led to 47 arrests and shut down the clandestine route.

The RGP has long nurtured tight partnerships with Spain’s Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional, and for good reason.

Those relationships hinge on shared intelligence and effective cooperation, even when political winds shift.

That cooperation, not a cursory glance at a passport or a rusting fence riddled with holes, is what truly keeps communities on both sides of the border safe.

Strengthening it must be a key aim of any post-Brexit treaty because cross-border threats, by their very nature, require cross-border responses.

We often focus too heavily on the negatives, the tiresome Spanish incursions into British waters, the occasional heavy-handed tactics at the border.

But we should not forget that, beneath these easy headlines, lies a solid foundation of coordinated cross-border action by law enforcement agencies, focused, above all, on keeping their communities safe.

I can’t shake the feeling that the debate around security reflects a deeper unease about the inevitable changes the treaty will bring to Gibraltar.

It’s not just about criminality, in other words, but a fear that we’ll lose something that makes us unique.

Chatting with people about the proposed changes at the border, it was unsurprising to hear the occasional tired trope about “Palomos” and “osmosis”.

I have some sympathy for these views, given our history and Spain’s intransigence within it.

But even if immigration controls are consigned to the past, the border - that invisible line separating us from the rest of continental Europe - will remain.

We obsess over these ideas to our detriment, because the foundations of our society - the rule of law based on the British model, our institutions, our education and healthcare systems - are solid, for all their flaws.

We should focus more on ensuring that everyone understands how these British systems work, appreciates their value, and contributes to improving and safeguarding them for future generations.

That we need a deal guaranteeing fluidity between Gibraltar and La Línea is a no-brainer.

Much as this may rankle with some, whose view of nationhood excludes others and is defined as much by what they are not as by what they are, we are mutually dependent on our neighbours.

And it’s not just about economics, vital though that is. It’s also about social interaction, sport, culture.

For most of us, strengthening relationships with people outside our multi-cultural Rock enriches us.

It doesn’t weaken us, quite the opposite. It makes us stronger, more confident in who we are and what we have to offer.

And when it comes to security, our safety lies not in fences, but in relationships, intelligence and trust.

In an interconnected world, cooperation and not isolation remains Gibraltar’s best defence.