Thousands of workers crossing daily between Spain and Gibraltar will enter a new era of easier travel on Wednesday, as border checks that have long been a source of tension are lifted.
Home to only around 40,000 people, the tiny self-governing British territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula relies on about 15,500 daily cross-border workers from Spain, who make up nearly half of its workforce.
Under an agreement reached between Brussels and London following Britain’s exit from the European Union, border controls between Gibraltar and Spain will be eliminated from July 15.
The agreement, which will be signed on Tuesday in Brussels, will align Gibraltar with the rules of Europe‘s passport-free Schengen travel area.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is set to visit the frontier zone on Wednesday, where workers have in recent weeks taken down the old chain-link fencing between Gibraltar and Spain.
He has hailed the new arrangements as bringing down “the last wall” inside the EU, saying they would create a zone of shared prosperity.
The border was closed by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in 1969 after Gibraltar, which relies on London for defense and foreign policy, voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to remain British.
The closure, which lasted 13 years, cut off the daily movement of workers from Spain into Gibraltar and separated families. (AFP)
