Cruise Liner Leaves Anglo-spanish Relations Sickly

The accident-prone cruise liner Aurora sailed out of Gibraltar last night leaving in its wake a diplomatic spat not seen since the days of the Spanish dictator, General Francisco Franco.

Shortly before relieved passengers finally stepped on to dry land from what some called a "prison" ship, where a rampant stomach virus had afflicted 400 people, the Spanish government of the prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, ordered police to lock the frontier gate.

Nobody had done that since 1969 when General Franco, in an attempt to force the Rock to accept Spanish sovereignty, ordered that the border gates be padlocked shut, a measure that was not lifted until 1985.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, called the measure "unnecessary and disproportionate".

Gibraltarians claimed Mr Aznar's conservative government was using the Aurora as an excuse to turn the screw on them as part of the 300-year-old row with Britain over sovereignty.

Spain's health minister, Ana Pastor, yesterday claimed the border closure was "to prevent any health risk" after a quarter of the 1,800 passengers on board suffered diarrhoea and vomiting provoked by the Norwalk-like virus.

Only after the towering white bulk of the Aurora had slipped back into the Straits of Gibraltar on its way home to Southampton last night was the frontier unlocked.

Spanish health experts interviewed on radio stations, meanwhile, played down the importance of the nasty, but non-deadly, virus.

The main thoroughfare that leads to Spain, Winston Churchill Avenue, was empty of traffic yesterday. Instead, there were clusters of bedraggled tourists, some clutching babies, who had arrived at the airport hours earlier.

At the border police officers in traditional British helmets paced up and down while 40 paces away across the deserted check-points was a row of blue vans marked Policia.

Gibraltar police officers promised to bring food and drink for the crowd waiting to get out, as the promised times when the border would be reopened came and went.

Superintendent Louis Wink shook his head when asked how helpful the Spanish authorities were being: "I can't comment."

Huddles of Spanish workers smoked their recently purchased cigarettes curiously while British workers waited patiently to return to their homes on the mainland - where rents are also cheaper.

John Fisher, who has been commuting from Spain to work as a ministry of defence security guard for 12 years, said: "This is just political - it's irresponsible. They have people on the other side waiting to come across, their own people."

Up to 4,000 Spaniards who travel to work on the Rock every day were locked out by the frontier closure.

The owners of the £200m superliner, P&O Cruises, said only six passengers were still sick yesterday and claimed their "highly effective protocols" had "arrested" the spread of the bug.

Authorities in Gibraltar gave permission for all those who had not been ill since Thursday to leave the vessel after consulting with the UK Centre for Communicable Diseases.

Several hundred passengers were able to go ashore for the first time since the Aurora visited Dubrovnik six days ago. The ship's crew held on to their passports, however, to prevent anyone leaving Gibraltar.

The 17-day cruise had, over the past few days, involved putting up with "Ghostbuster" style decontamination squads and watching patrol vessels escort the superliner out of Greek waters after passengers were banned from going ashore in Athens.

On the streets of the Rock and in mobile phone conversations passengers described a "holiday from hell".

"It's been like a mortuary on board. Everybody is sick and we're not allowed to go in public areas," said Michele Seaborn, a recent star of Channel 4's Wife Swap series. "It's horrendous. They are walking around in white suits like Ghostbusters, spraying everything with chemicals."

Her husband, Barry, added: "It's like Strangeways, like a prison, locked in a cabin with no food or water. I feel like David Blaine."

Ronald Martin and his wife, Doreen, said they had spent several days nursing two sick children. "The kids have not seen land since the 28th. They were confined to a cabin with no windows for three to four days with vomiting and diarrhoea," Mr Martin explained.

Other passengers praised the crew. "I have had no problems. It's been super - the crew could not do enough for us," said Dorothy Barry, from Blackpool.

As passengers disembarked, a local unfurled a Union flag in a one-man protest against the Spanish authorities.

"We have been here on Gibraltar since 1704, and we shall stay here, whatever happens and whatever the Spanish do," said Michael Ballestero, 70.

"I think if Spain were not claiming sovereignty of Gibraltar the frontier would not be closed," Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter Caruana, said.

The Spanish decision to close the frontier followed last year's failed attempts to secure an agreement whereby Spain and Britain would share sovereignty.

That agreement was sunk when Mr Caruana called a November referendum and 17,900 Gibraltarians reject any co-sovereignty deal with Spain while only 187 voted in favour.

Warning

In June, Britain's Europe minister, Denis MacShane, warned Spain that if it could not carry public opinion on Gibraltar then there was no point negotiating an agreement. "I've been in politics too long to waste my time bashing my head against a wall," he said.

Activists from Voice of Gibraltar, campaigning for self-determination for the island, hung up a banner on the police crowd-barriers by the border yesterday, reading "Keep Gibraltar British".

The Aurora left Southampton on October 20 and was due to dock there again on Thursday. Passengers were expected to be welcomed by worried relatives and by lawyers planning to sue P&O for the problems experienced on holidays that reportedly cost between £1,500 and £5,500 a head.