The inoperativeness of Border Inspection Posts (PIF) at the Tenerife South and Tenerife North airports forces the deviation of Gran Canaria Gando the merchandise that requires this service bound for Tenerife. The consequence is that the loss and increase in price of products, both perishable and long-lasting, as well as contracts, is recorded, in addition to “conditioning the possibility and ability to diversify the economy,” denounced the regional deputy Rosa Dávila (CC).
Although 90% of the merchandise that the Island receives arrives through the ports, the 10% that enters via the airport have to pass customs control in Gran Canaria. This occurs despite the fact that in the two airport complexes on the island there are adapted facilities such as Border Inspection Post. In the case of the Reina Sofía, the dependencies “were enabled years ago, they are created, but they never became operational.” As for the City of La Laguna, the service stopped being provided when the personnel who attended it -ascribed to the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife- stopped doing so because their demands were not attended, explains the also secretary of the Organization of the Canary Island Coalition of Tenerife .
Rosa Dávila warns that «we are facing a problem whose solution is a matter of political will». While resorting to the argument of a necessary economic diversification, “we find that we are in an outermost region and Tenerife does not have a Border Inspection Point.” The deputy maintains that this circumstance occurs because “no specific personnel have been assigned to attend the PIF at any of the island’s airports. This causes damage.”
The demand for the commissioning ofl Border Inspection Post at Tenerife South and Tenerife North airports It is a matter that involves the central government – through the Tax Agency, Animal Health, Plant Health, External Health and the Official Inspection, Surveillance and Customs Regulation Service (Soivre) – and the Canarian Executive, says Dávila. She recalls that she made a request in this regard as General Director of Transport of the Government of the Canary Islands, during the 2003-2007 term, under the Presidency of Adán Martín.
Sources of the state mercantile society Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) ensure that their competence is limited to enabling the facilities of the Border Inspection Post of the Tenerife South Airport, confirming that they are available.
The nationalist deputy in the Autonomous Chamber includes this problem in the Proposition No of Law (PNL) that her political formation raises with the objective that the regional Executive extends to Saturdays, Sundays and holidays the control and inspection hours in the Canarian ports of merchandise in all areas of its competence. Rosa Dávila maintains that «The Canary Islands cannot be closed for holidays. The Islands cannot be isolated on holidays or weekends, and this is the case today.
