A total of 38 passengers were left on the ground when trying to board a flight departing from Lanzarote to the United Kingdom due to incidents at the border control of the César Manrique Airport.
According to an extension of the complaint filed with the Court of Instruction number 2 of Arrecife and exposing the deficiencies in the control of non-EU travelers upon arrival and departure from the island, the events occurred at 6:00 p.m. on July 31 at the boarding of a flight of the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair.
The extension of the complaint was filed based on information from National Police officers working at the Schengen Border of Lanzarote Airport. According to the document accessed by La Voz, allegedly "a single official was sent (due to lack of personnel)" to carry out the departure control of travelers from the United Kingdom.
Then, Ryanair employees questioned the officer to speed up this control. The national police officer then explained that the verifier was not working faster and that "they had only sent one official to that cabin."
Boarding closed without the border control being completed, resulting in 38 passengers who could not catch the plane. On this occasion, the company "does not assume the problem caused by this incident," so the passengers would apparently be left without the right to compensation. After that, the National Police officer who stamped the passports of this flight, informed the Head of the Border Post in writing.
"On other occasions, stamping has been stopped to prevent this situation," the document registered in the Court states, prioritizing entry control over exit control and leaving the stay of the affected passengers in European territory "unclosed." The text points out that these incidents "could be causing financial damage" to airport users.
Lack of personnel
From the Provincial Police Station of the National Police of Las Palmas, in May 2022, "an extension of the catalog of job positions of different staff" was requested, including those of Arrecife and its Air Border Post of Lanzarote. The request was reiterated unsuccessfully in March and October 2023, but the General Directorate of the National Police, based in Madrid, did not respond to these requests.
As it was not attended to, a "temporary assignment of functions" was requested and that all vacant positions in the Lanzarote Police Station be filled in Commission of Services. Currently, the National Police officers are divided between their usual tasks and the growing demand in periods of greater migratory pressure and the temporary displacement to "cover the needs of the border post on days of greater concentration of flights." This data was provided by the provincial commissioner of Las Palmas to a question from the police union Equiparación Salarial Ya.
Complaint before a Court of Instruction
The Court of Instruction number two of Arrecife received the complaint of a National Police officer who highlighted that the César Manrique Airport had been without stamping the passports of national travelers from third countries for three years, against European regulations.
At the same time, he warned that the outer border of the airport with rabbits has "a fissure or important vulnerability" within the European borders.
In addition, this same agent also notified the European Prosecutor's Office of the alleged embezzlement of funds at the Lanzarote Airport. The defrauded amount would amount to one million euros from the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF).
