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Opinion & Analysis

‘This is about people’

Photo by Brian Reyes

The tit-for-tat immigration face-off at the border earlier this month may yet prove helpful in the long run, despite the drama that morning.

If nothing else, it put a spotlight on the reality of what ‘no deal’ might mean for Gibraltar and La Linea, the two cities at the centre of the last unresolved Brexit conundrum.

When a Spanish police officer took a unilateral decision to start stamping Gibraltarian passports that day, authorities on this side of the border reciprocated immediately.

Predictably, it caused chaos in the morning rush hour.

The first I heard of this was an urgent early-morning message from someone I know who works in healthcare and was asking me what was going on. The team of experienced nurses he works with was stuck at the border.

It was a stark reminder that Gibraltar and La Linea, in more ways than we often realise, are mutually reliant.

Gibraltar’s economy provides employment for 15,000 cross-border workers and Gibraltarian custom is the mainstay of many Campo businesses, particularly in La Linea.

Conversely, cross-border workers are a vital element of our society, not just in the services industry but across all areas of our economy.

Some years ago, when someone close to me was diagnosed with a serious illness, it was a Spanish doctor in the GHA who played a key part in his diagnosis and recovery.

That’s what we’re talking about.

With that in mind, one conclusion we could draw from the recent border collapse is that communities on either side of the border need each other, however much that rankles with some people here and there.

The events that day should also resonate in Madrid.

Throughout the protracted negotiation for a UK/EU treaty for Gibraltar, one refrain from Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, has been consistent.

Spanish workers, he has said repeatedly, need not worry about any changes at the border because they’ll be able to come and go as they want.

Except they won’t, as was made clear early on that Friday morning two weeks ago.

For many in that workforce, perhaps lulled into false comfort by Mr Albares’ words, being asked for a passport was a rude awakening.

Reciprocity in immigration controls will bite everyone in the cross-border workforce, even those – about a third of the 15,000 total - who started their employment here before the end of the transition period and thus enjoy some additional protections afforded by the Withdrawal Agreement.

If we are stamped on the way out of Gibraltar, then every EU national will have to queue and show their passports on the way in.

It’s a simple equation, but it would help no one and hurt everyone, us included.

People crossing the border would bear the brunt of political failure in the treaty negotiation, whichever direction they’re travelling in. So too would our economy and key public services, healthcare top of the list.

There may be some ways of mitigating the immediate impact on Gibraltar, staggering staff rosters to spread the rush-hour volume, stockpiling essential goods and offering key cross-border workers overnight accommodation as if they had no families to return to after a day’s work.

But what a way to live.

The stand-off at the border on October 11 was the last straw for La Linea mayor Juan Franco, who that very morning called a mass demonstration for October 25 under the slogan ‘La Linea matters, we are not invisible’.

Last Friday, over 10,000 people heeded his call, marching to the border to send a clear message that a treaty was not just desirable, but essential.

Without a deal, thousands of families will be impacted by a Brexit that only a handful here wanted.

It seems incomprehensible that we are still waiting for an agreement, that whatever issues remain on the table cannot be resolved once and for all between modern European partners with far bigger issues to worry about in these troubled times.

Gibraltar, at least, is speaking with one voice in this situation. But the longer it takes, the more the landscape gets muddied, particularly on the Spanish side where domestic politics and inter-municipal rivalries risk blurring the focus.

That was one of the key messages sent by the demonstrators on Friday, led by the indefatigable and charismatic Mr Franco, who had worried about turnout before the protest but seemed in awe of the response on the night.

Addressing the crowds opposite the border, Mr Franco recalled how nearly 30,000 people in La Linea – more than the population of Gibraltar at the time – had been forced to emigrate within a year of the border closure in 1969.

“We cannot allow a repeat of that situation,” he said.

“All of us here have family who are in Barcelona, in London, in Australia and in the farthest places of the planet, because we were condemned to hunger by a dictatorship.”

And while Gibraltar endured that modern-day siege and forged a path forward, and will do so again if need be, we should guard against remembering that period through nostalgia laced with talk of resistance and resilience. Those were tough times few would wish to return to.

Last Friday, alongside a call for a treaty once and for all, Mr Franco also said it was time that Madrid put focus on La Linea and the immediate problem of the border, and not be swayed by the noise from neighbouring municipalities whose futures, unlike La Linea’s, would not be shattered by a ‘no deal’ outcome.

“The truth is that the main party affected by Brexit is La Linea, its businesses, its workers, its pensioners,” Mr Franco said.

“Any person living here will be affected by what happens with this border, fence, or whatever you want to call it.”

“And we cannot accept that some people are trying to sell another version.”

From the outset, negotiators have said the treaty is about protecting the long-term interests of communities on either side of the border. They must not lose sight of that.

We have two competing narratives, each party in the negotiation saying they have put forward generous and balanced proposals that protect core positions on all sides.

And there is no doubt about the legal and political complexity of what they are working to achieve, shaped by over 300 years of history.

The job of the negotiators, of course, is to look past emotion and strive for a deal that best protects the wider interests of the people they represent.

Mr Picardo said last week that a deal could be signed tomorrow if Spain accepted the proposals tabled by the UK and Gibraltar. But in truth, Spain has said the same in reverse many times in the past.

Can there really be that much between the two positions?

All sides are still at the negotiating table and talking, which suggests they must at least think it possible that a landing ground can be found where everyone wins.

And the basic fact remains, as we were reminded on October 11: We live in an interdependent world where law-abiding people simply want to go about their daily lives freely and without interference.

That’s what this negotiation is ultimately about.

Ahead of Friday’s march, Lorenzo Pérez Periáñez, a La Linea businessman who for years has participated in the Cross-Frontier Group as president of La Linea’s small businesses association, spoke with clarity as we chatted in the city’s Plaza Fariñas.

“This is about people, about human relations,” he told me.

“To have a hard border would be like having another Berlin wall.”

“It would be a political failure if communities on either side of the border end up being separated again.”

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