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Date Published: 25/02/2022

ARCHIVED - Police union demands extra officers at Alicante Airport as tourism picks up

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

British travellers without Spanish residency must have their passports stamped post-Brexit, creating substantial "work overload"

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Police union demands extra officers at Alicante Airport as tourism picks up

Police union JUPOL is demanding an "urgent increase" in staff levels at Alicante-Elche arguing that human resources haven't changed "since the nineties" whilst passenger traffic has increased significantly.

And the union claims that understaffing has led to as many as "60 passengers missing their flights on busy summer days" despite the efforts of "superhuman" police.

JUPOL fears the situation will only worsen with the reactivation of international tourism, but above all because Alicante Airport receives a large number of British travellers who, post-Brexit, must have their passports stamped by police if they don't have Spanish residency.

"Of the more than 15 million passengers in 2019, around 6.5 million came from the UK creating a substantial work overload," said the union in a statement.

Also read: Alicante-Kiev flights cancelled amid Russian attack on Ukraine

The Finance Ministry's Interministerial Commission on Remuneration, the body responsible for approving a police recruitment drive is due to meet within the next week, and is expected to approve "2,500 new positions" for all types of postings across Spain. It's not clear how many, if any, will be based at Alicante Airport.

The airport is the fifth largest in Spain, in terms of international visitors, and according to its director, Laura Navarro, experienced a recovery of nearly 39% compared to pre-pandemic figures in 2021.

In light of a forecast continued rise in passenger traffic, JUPOL's provincial secretary, David García, compared the situation at Alicante airport, where there are 77 police officers, with that of other provinces.

For example, in Mallorca, there are 131 police officers for a public that comes largely from Germany; in Malaga, 106; and 97 in Tenerife.

"The work carried out by officers at Alicante airport is superhuman," claims García

The union has argued that long queues of passengers does not only occur when it comes to manually stamping passports.

It also affects other posts such as the judicial police, who are responsible for stopping document forgery offences "above all by third country nationals who want to enter the UK"; in addition to "the execution of arrests warrants".

"This group made 96 arrests in 2015 and 441 in 2021, which clearly shows the increase in their workload," added the union's provincial secretary.

Image: JUPOL

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