The plenary session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands has approved this Wednesday a non-legal proposition asking the Canary Islands Government to urge the central executive to provide the islands' airports with the necessary police officers to attend to the passport control that the number of visitors requires.
This non-legal proposition from the Nationalist group (CC), which has accepted amendments from PP and Vox, and has been approved unanimously, also urges to put into operation the passport self-control machines by biometric recognition that are currently not operational.
The initial proposal was for the Tenerife South airport, but Vox has proposed that the same be done at the Lanzarote airport, and the Popular group that the measure be extended to all the aerodromes of the islands.
The deputy of the Nationalist group Miguel Martín Fumero, recalled that the Tenerife South airport is the seventh in Spain with more than 12 million passengers a year, and stressed that it is one of the most economically profitable but its infrastructures are not in accordance with it.
He pointed out that, of the four double cabins with capacity for eight agents, only two positions are covered with police officers, leaving the rest of the cabins empty.
The non-legal proposition points out that the lack of resources of the National Police in the passport controls of the Tenerife South airport generates, for months, endless waiting queues that exceed two hours, generating conflicts between passengers and between passengers and the airport staff.
In addition, the proposal continues, the extension of the waiting queues reaches the outer area of runways due to the impossibility of accessing a space where the passage of flights accumulates.
It is highlighted that the need to control British passports after the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU has not been addressed with the necessary personnel since it occurred in accordance with the number of tourists from this country who arrive in the Canary Islands, also causing serious damage to the image of the Canary Islands in this important issuing country.
And it adds that the installation of facial recognition devices has not served to alleviate the reception of tourists from outside the Schengen area as they remain inoperative.
