They warn that the situation has not reached its peak and predict that it will worsen in the coming weeks.

• feedback Interior announces reinforcement of 500 agents in 12 airports

Ministry of Interior The main airports have a problem with tourists entering Spain. It is condemned by policemen who work under passport control, validated by airlines and confirmed by outside agents, such as tourism boards, after taking the pulse of the collapse that terminals are already starting to register.

army of national police They are not enough to participate in the volume that has multiplied due to the fact that the British have become non-EU citizens. This circumstance has resulted in collapse – including flight losses – attacks on police officers and tensions between staff and the department. Fernando Grande-MarlaskaWhich denies this scenario but yesterday announced the induction of 500 more policemen in 12 airports.

Passport control is overcrowded and the available resources are not sufficient for liquidity depending on the location of the main terminals. The situation at Alicante airport is particularly complicated.

This is an anarchy. We are overwhelmed, shows one of the agents working in the terminal. Alicante is one of the main destinations of British tourism – of the 15 million travelers registered annually, more than six come from the United Kingdom – and an avalanche of arrivals has left police unable to react.

according to union jupoloOf the 81 agents, 160 would be required to be able to process passports without control. However, only four new locations have been built for the terminal which, in months and August, becomes the second airport in Spain, after Madrid, with the most passenger traffic.

Last week a British tourist who had to wait for more than an hour to process his entry in Spain broke the arm of one of the policemen at passport control. In the end, people explode and we are not good enough to take on this task, he denounces. There is a shortage of personnel and this is an emergency because we have not even reached the peak of passengers and we are already overwhelmed. There is a deficit and the places have not been covered, he insists.

Jupol also warns of personnel shortages in other tourist airports, for example, Tenerife – 98 and 50 are required – or El Prat where, the union indicates, 143 agents are leaving and 122 will be replaced, With which there will be 21 vacancies.

For its part, Interior says that of the 500 additional troops, 189 will be assigned to Madrid-Barajas airport, another 89 to police officers in El Prat and 50 to Palma de Mallorca.

Thus, it denies that there are problems with the controls and dismisses the complaint of Iberia, which assured that between March and May 15,000 passengers lost their connection flight due to the collapse of the police filter. There is no recorded or registered complaint, it resolves.

The airline sector has been condemning for some time that a lack of agents at passport control could lead to a decline in major airports. The ALA, the Association of Air Lines, sent a letter to the interior months ago asking for reinforcements. Both the ALA and Iberia have reported that some 20,000 flights have been lost in Barajas alone since the start of the year, and the problem extends to other tourist airports. It was taking an average of 40 minutes for passengers to pass the filter today, sources in an airline said.