Mallorca Airport Adds Separate Queue For Unvaccinated Travellers
The airport on the holiday island of Mallorca has created one queue for vaccinated travellers and another for those who have not had the jab in a bid to prevent travel chaos.
A spokesperson for the Spanish Ministry of health told local media outlet Ultima Hora that the goal was to “accelerate the arrival of passengers”.
The airport management is reportedly seeking to avoid chaos as seen at other airports across Europe in recent days by providing two distinct queues.
According to German daily Bild, other airports in Europe, like the Berlin Brandenburg airport, have been host to scenes of chaos because they do not have enough staff to check travellers’ vaccination certificates and passports.
By creating two queues, one for those who have had their jab and another for those who have not, the Spanish authorities are hoping they can avoid large groups of people standing huddled together for hours on end.
Vaccinated passengers will therefore be made to stand in a queue that is marked with the colour green while unvaccinated passengers will have to stand in the red-coloured queue.
The Ministry of Health insisted that they were not attempting to discriminate against anyone, adding: “Passengers without a vaccination certificate simply have to show more documents, including a questionnaire and a negative corona test. Therefore this process is slower.”
However, the Spanish far right political party Vox disagrees and is quoting as saying in the Spanish newspaper Ultima Hora that the move is “segregating” citizens based on their health status.
The leader of the far right party, Jorge Campos, slammed the move, calling it “intolerable”. He even appeared to make a comparison between the authorities in Spain and the Nazis, saying: “From here to sewing a star on clothes, there is but a small step.”
The Ministry of Health insists that the measures only exist to “facilitate and expedite” passengers arriving at the airport, adding: “They are circuits that technicians prepare based on passenger arrivals, there is no intention to discriminate against anyone, simply to facilitate the processes.”