MADRID (AP) – Guilty of COVID-19 or Brexit travel restrictions, but whatever the cause, some British citizens trying to return home to various European countries this weekend have been banned from boarding flights.
Airlines rejected documents that before Brexit had been a valid proof of the status of the British as residents in Spain, Italy and Germany, although Spanish authorities claimed the problem had been resolved by mid-Sunday.
His ordeal came amid intense travel restrictions due to a variant of the coronavirus that has been blamed for a faster spread in the UK and highlights the bureaucratic complexities resulting from Britain’s exit from the UK. European Union of 27 countries.
Both the Spanish and British authorities said on Sunday that the green EU citizenship certificate with a foreign national identification number issued by Spain remains valid for British citizens residing in Spain according to the bilateral provisions that followed the UK withdrawal from the block on 31 December. .
But travelers say British Airways and Iberia, which are part of the IAG group, have refused to let them board for the past two days.
Iberia said in a statement on Sunday afternoon that a communication from the Spanish border police on January 1 had created “some confusion” and that it was later clarified. British Airways did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Around 300,000 British citizens are registered as permanent residents in Spain, although before Brexit, many more had lived full-time or part-time in the country without officially registering.
Patricia Moody, a 69-year-old retiree who has been calling in the southern Spanish city of Zurgena for nearly four years, was part of a group of at least nine people who could not board a BA / Iberia flight to in Madrid from Heathrow Airport to London Saturday.
Moody said she and her husband, who she says needs to return to her doctor in Spain, have spent £ 1,900 ($ 2,600) on getting tested for the virus, traveling to the airport and booking new tickets after ‘ls reject boarding. His second attempt was also futile.
“Throughout all the months of Brexit negotiations, they always assured us that nothing would change for us,” he said. Referring to airlines and authorities in both countries, he added: “It’s horrible and we are suffering from their incompetence.”
Following the discovery of the coronavirus variant in the United Kingdom, many European nations have banned all travel from the British Isles except their own citizens and British citizens with residency rights.
Passengers in Pisa, Italy and Berlin have also reported similar obstacles when boarding planes operated by Ryanair and Lufthansa despite carrying documents that had been accepted by the Italian and German governments, respectively.
Matt Bristow, a spokesman for the British Residents’ Association in Germany in that country, said: “It seems to be the case that UK airport staff do not know what documents should be accepted or that they apply the rules more rigorously than those of the German border police “.
Spain has implemented a new system for registering permanent foreign residents called TIE, but is lagging behind due to the high number of applications. Authorities told AP that the TIE application test and the “green certificate” for EU citizens were still valid for travel for British residents under the new health restrictions in place until 19 January.
“This should not happen,” the UK embassy in Spain said in a post on Facebook. “The Spanish authorities have confirmed today that the green residence document for the trip to Spain will be accepted, as indicated in our travel tips.”
But Sam Dakin, a 32-year-old English teacher based in Barcelona for the past four years, and his partner, who has been in the Spanish city for 8 years, said they needed more guarantees before they could book flights again.
The couple had been blocked from flying Saturday morning despite carrying their certificate and were denied boarding on another flight on Saturday evening which British Airways had initially said they could catch.
“Just because the government adviser said we could travel, we don’t know if that will happen when we show up at the counters,” Dakin said. “We just don’t know where we’re going to get answers.”
In a statement, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said there was “an isolated communication problem with some airlines that affected a very small number of passengers” and that air traffic between the UK and Spain proceeded “with normalcy “in the middle of Sunday.
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AP writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.