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MALAGA

Brits on the Costa del Sol ‘worried and anxious’ as UK triggers Brexit

The day after Britain voted to leave the European Union last June, British pensioner David Frost noticed his left leg was severely swollen.

Brits on the Costa del Sol 'worried and anxious' as UK triggers Brexit
Briton David Frost talks with his neighbours in Malaga on March 27th 2017. Photo: AFP

He walked over to his local public health clinic in the southern Spanish city of Malaga and was promptly diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, in which a blood clot blocks off blood flow deep in the veins, a potentially fatal condition.

Frost, who has lived in Spain since 1991, received daily injections of expensive blood thinners for several months at virtually no cost to himself until his life was out of danger.

Now the 74-year-old is one of thousands of British retirees in Spain who fear they will be forced to move back to Britain if they lose their free access to Spanish public health care as a result of Britain's exit from the bloc.

“I couldn't afford to live here without free health care,” he said as he sat on the sofa of his 13th floor apartment in central Malaga on Spain's Costa del Sol which offers sweeping views of nearby mountains.

“This is my home now. I want to stay here. I want to die sitting on a balcony looking at a view, watching a sunset, having a glass of red wine. Not in some miserable grey street in Manchester with grey skies and no view.”

READ ALSO: Eight reasons why Spain is very worried about Brexit

'Worried and anxious' 

Spain is the number one destination for British nationals living outside Britain, far ahead of France and Ireland.

The country is home to just over 300,000 Britons, around a third of them aged over 65. The figure rises to around one million if Britons who live only part of the year in Spain are included.

With British Prime Minister Theresa May expected to invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday to launch the process of leaving the bloc, anxiety is running high among this huge expat community.

“Nobody really knows how it is going to go,” said Julie Payne, 65, of Brexpats in Spain, one of several groups that lobbies to protect the rights of Britons living in Spain, as she sat by the pool of her seaside villa in Benalmadena up the coast from Malaga.

“People are worried and anxious,” added Payne, who moved to Spain in 2000.

Aside from fearing the loss of free health care, many retirees fear their pensions will take a hit when Britain leaves the EU, she said.

READ ALSO: Why Brexit is a 'matter of life and death' for some Brits in Europe

'Cutting out luxuries'

Under existing rules any British state pensions collected in Spain or any other EU nation get the same annual increase to compensate for inflation as those collected in Britain.

But it is not clear if this arrangement will be kept after Britain leaves the bloc.

The annual increases are not paid to Britons living outside of the EU in countries like Australia and Canada, whose state pension is frozen at the amount it was when they left Britain.

British retirees in Spain are already feeling the pinch from the drop of the pound, which has shed about 15 percent of its value against the euro since Britain voted for Brexit in a June 2016 referendum.

“For some this has meant cutting out on luxuries such as having a meal out. For others this means not being able to turn on the heating or cutting back on paying for personal care,” said Kelly Hall, a lecturer in social policy at the University of Birmingham who has studied British retirees in Spain.

The drop in the pound was especially hard for the “numerous” British nationals living in Spain who are entirely reliant on a British state pension — which is capped at around 480 pounds (€555 euros) a month — as their only form of income, she added.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he thinks a deal can quickly be worked out with Britain to defend the rights of British expats in Spain after Brexit — a view shared by Mark Sampson, the owner of the Eurobar in Benalmadena which sells pints of beer for just one euro.

“They wouldn't want us all to leave and take all of our money and wealth out of Spain,” said the burly 50-year-old, who moved to Spain from the northern English seaside resort of Blackpool five years ago and voted for Britain to leave the bloc.

By Daniel Silva

READ ALSO: Forgotten voices: What Brits in Spain think about Brexit

GIBRALTAR

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spain has expelled four Royal Navy servicemen who crossed the Spain-Gibraltar border on foot three times in a single day while dressed in civilian clothing, with Spanish media claiming they were checking the porosity of the border.

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spanish police expelled four British soldiers from Spain on Monday night, removing them from the country and sending them back to Gibraltar after it emerged that the four Royal Navy personnel had entered Spain illegally while “posing as tourists”, as the Spanish press has reported.

The incident comes a week after the British Navy carried out military drills in the waters surrounding Gibraltar, the British overseas territory that Spain still claims sovereignty of, and amid the seemingly never-ending negotiations between Spain and the UK to finally settle a post-Brexit deal.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar Brexit deal ‘close’ as Brits crossing into Spain use fake bookings

The expulsions, now reported in the Spanish press by Europa Sur and confirmed to El Periódico de España by official sources, occurred after the four soldiers arrived in Gibraltar on a civilian flight and entered into Spain. They also had return tickets via Gibraltar.

They then reportedly passed themselves off as tourists and entered Spain on foot, staying at a four-star hotel in La Línea de la Concepción, the town in the Cádiz province of Andalusia that borders Gibraltar.

Stranger yet is that they crossed the border at La Línea on up to three occasions in the space of a few hours.

READ ALSO: What Brits need to know before crossing the border from Gibraltar to Spain

Spanish authorities detected their presence because two of the soldiers tried to return to Gibraltar at night.

At the border, Spanish police officers enquired as to the reason for their entry, to which the soldiers replied that they were on their way to work and brandished British military documentation.

The police decided that their entry into Spain had been irregular because they did not meet the Schengen Borders Code requirements demanded of non-EU citizens entering EU territory.

According to Europa Sur, Spanish police then asked the two soldiers to call their colleagues in the hotel in order to collect their luggage and return to Gibraltar, which took place at midnight on Monday 18th March.

The Spanish press has stated that it is common for soldiers to try to stay in Spanish territory by concealing their military status and entering while posing as tourists.

The motive for the soldiers’ presence, particularly their repeated trips across the border, remains unknown.

The military drills in the area seem to suggest that the soldiers may have taken part in or be due to take part in further exercises and wanted to enter as tourists.

Spanish media also suggests that they could have been testing the porosity of the border, though these claims remain unsubstantiated.

Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status still remains unresolved. The EU and UK government are now onto their 18th round of treaty negotiations after the framework agreement between London and Madrid made on New Year’s Eve 2020 essentially ‘fudged’ the border issue, leaving Gibraltar’s status within the Schengen area undefined.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in late-2023 that “we are very, very close” to finalising a Brexit agreement.

“I would sign a deal with Britain over Gibraltar tomorrow,” Albares told journalists at the time. Yet no agreement was made, despite the Minister’s positivity, nor the appointment of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.

Albares’ comments came at a time when it was reported in the Spanish press that many UK nationals have been using fake hotel bookings in order to try and bypass the Schengen rules and trick their way through border checks.

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