Gibraltar border row erupts as police official files unprecedented complaint

A police chief has filed an unprecedented complaint over Spanish border control (Image: Getty)

A police chief has filed a complaint about lax border control on Gibraltar nationals crossing into Spain, as tensions stoked by Brexit continue to simmer in the territory.

Gibraltar residents are currently able to cross into Spain without having their passports stamps by instead showing guards their red ID cards - a transitional measure while the UK and Spain continue to negotiate a new agreement about the rules governing the border since Britain left the EU.

As many as 15,000 citizens of 'the rock' cross into Spain each day, most of them workers, and an unwritten agreement with guards make them exempt from passport checks - but one police official has had enough of the relaxed immigration control.

In an unprecedented move, a National Police chief inspector filed a complaint against the unofficial practice on Friday, suggesting that not asking for passports from non-EU citizens amounted to a breach of the Schengen Borders Code, in force throughout the EU.

Immediately after making the complaint at a Spanish courthouse, the chief inspector instructed officers to ask for Gibraltan passports, Europasur reports - fanning the flames of what an already contentious and raging debate.

Thousands of Gibraltar and Spanish nationals cross the border every day for work (Image: Getty)

Just last month, over 12,000 protestors took to the streets of La Linea near Gibraltar to demand that a Brexit treaty be reached, including "special measures" to protect the city's economy.

Since Brexit officially came into force on February 1, 2020, Gibraltar citizens have been the only non-EU nationals allowed into Spain without a passport, an agreement that also benefits Spanish cross-border workers.

The chief inspector's controversial move after making the complaint was knocked down by a counter-order from the Headquarters of the Provincial Police Station of Cadiz on Friday after two hours of heated debate, and once again allowed Gibraltans to enter the country with only their red identity card.

But the discrepancy highlighted in the objection could mark a turning point in the ongoing border dispute - especially in its suggestion that the informal custom poses a security risk to all 27 EU countries.

The chief inspector had written four previous notes to his superiors, calling on them to "diligently and judiciously apply the border code" and in his latest appeal, said they were falling short of Articles 6 and 11, which cover entry conditions for third-country nationals and the policy on stamping travel documents.

The complaint will now be passed from judges in La Linea to a Gibraltar court, which will decide whether to begin an investigation into potential crimes of prevarication on the border.