A court in Arrecife will judge an incident on July 31st, when 38 passengers were left behind on a 6pm Ryanair departure to the UK after only one police officer was provided to stamp outgoing passports. Despite appeals by Ryanair staff, the plane was forced to depart without passengers who had not been processed in time.
Ryanair claim that they are not responsible for the delay and are thus not liable to compensate passengers.
A report from the agent involved and submitted to their immediate superior claims that “On other occasions, stamping has been stopped so that this situation would not occur,” giving priority to entry control over exit control and leaving passengers’ stay in European territory “unfinished.” The report warns that such these incidents “could be causing financial damage” to passengers.
Long queues have become frequent at the airport since border control officers were ordered to stamp all third country passports in June. A police officer had complained that this had not been carried out for three years on direct orders from above, owing to low staffing.
