Key parts of the post-Brexit treaty that provides for a fluid border between Gibraltar and Spain will come into provisional effect today. Running to over a thousand pages, the treaty took far longer to negotiate than the entire Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. It has still to be ratified by the House of Commons and the EU parliament.

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The treaty effectively makes Gibraltar part of the EU’s passport-free Schengen area. Both Spain and Gibraltar were anxious to avoid long waits at the border: the 15,000 Spaniards who cross every day are half of Gibraltar’s work force and they are also an estimated 25 per cent of the wage earners in the adjacent region – one of the poorest parts of Spain.

Instead of occurring at the land crossing, immigration controls will now be centred at Gibraltar’s airport and, when necessary, the port. This shift effectively eliminates waiting at the frontier and allows for the partial removal of the 1.2 kilometres of border fence. Travellers will present their passports to both Gibraltarian and Spanish officials within a joint facility, known as the ‘Schengen shack’. This dual-processing model is designed to function along the........

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