More incursions by Spanish Para Military Guardia Civil in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters- now how is it recorded?

More and more incursions by Guardia Civil - the question how are these recorded.

We seem to be playing games on statistics and I am not sure why? We all know and have proof of how high the incursions have risen and we know how many are done by the Spanish para military Guardia Civil and how many by fishermen from Spain. SO how have these incursions been recorded?

Below are some photos done just today for incursions - but the question is how has this incursion been recorded? The Guardia Civil interfered with another private vessel in our waters! How has this been recorded? The incidents happened at 12.50 today but RGP and Royal Navy do not patrol until 16.40 and return to base at 16.50 as the situation has gone! What did they expect! Now at 19.30 we have 2 fishing boats from Spain in our waters using "luceros" this means of fishing using a light to attract is forbidden in our law! RGP informed waiting now.....

Paramilitary in our waters at 12.50

RGP going to patrol at 16.40 when there were no boats!

 RGP returning to  base at 16.50 after patrolling when no boats were in our waters

 Royal Navy Squadron returning to base when they patrolled when there were not boats!











So we are waiting on UK Government - FCO - Commodore John Clink and our Governor to stop the Guardia Civil incursions in our waters! As yet they continue as there is no action and no consequence to the incursions. Worse still we now do not even know how the incursions are being reported! Enough of Diplomacy SIRS! We demand action - the same action the Falklands enjoy! The protection from Britain that we lack!

We continue to hold Mr Hague, Mr Cameron and Mr Lidington accountable and responsible for any incidents that arise at sea due to lack of action and negligence.

We call on everyone out there to support our cause and pressure our UK Government to stop hiding behind false words and no action. Stop acting like Ostriches and stop playing the appeaser with our land, sea and future! 

To our Government how long are we going to have to wait for our fishing report to be made public? How much longer do you need to read and digest this report? While we wait we suffer more and more incursions Thus we suffer more tensions due to lack of action!

To our Royal Gibraltar Police - RGP - Wake up Mr Yome and let your police do their job and enforce the laws! AS each day goes by you lose all credibility with the people! Stand up for the law that you promised to uphold and to be fair to all no matter who they are or what nationality! Stop the discrimination!

Anne-Marie Struggles

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More newspaper write up by Leo Olivero in the Panorama - raising again the question on stats.

Incursions into Gibraltar waters get  watered down by Leo Olivero Questions last week in parliament, regarding the fishing dispute turned out to be quite an illuminating occasion. Where the Government answered questions from the leader of the opposition providing details of the amount of times Spanish fishermen had cast their nets in BGTW during the course of last year and the first 6/7 weeks of this year. Another question referred to the incursions by Spanish state vessels (excluding innocent passage) to this, the Chief Minister handed across the parliament floor a prepared table presumably containing the information being sought. The table or chart of figures produced related to the number of incursions since the start of 2012. This was completely new information to the ordinary public and I dare say, some of the press in Gibraltar!  For the first time and as a result of questions posed in our own parliament we were informed that the Level of Seriousness attached to the one National Issue that has Dominated Local News (and you could say our lives) for the last year, is actually measured by using (incorrectly so I may add) an Unknown Measuring System. As we all know, incursions into BGTW are all monitored and logged. Certainly Panorama is aware that Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which refers to the ‘meaning innocent passage’ has with it some 12 different (you could say) clauses, which distinguishers the level of seriousness in respect to a particular incursion in a nations territorial waters.  Public Unaware of Incursion Classification!  The point here, is that the ‘vast majority of people in Gibraltar’ I am sure, were unaware of this and from what I can gather, would have obviously thought that an incursion, with the exception of it being one of innocent passage, is just that, a serious incident, that was not categorised or classed as to its level of seriousness. Looking at the incursion chart presented by the Chief Minister in Parliament last week there appears to be 5 levels of incursions; Class A on the chart is classified as a major incident. Class B is classified as minor illegal incursion and then broken further into 4 further-sub minor other illegal incursions  I know that the Data collected of the various illegal fishing (offences) practices and of the Guardia Civil or military ship incursion is collated by the RGP. I suspect the Royal Navy also do their own. Who Determines Incursion Class Level? The question that I would like answered is whose role is it to classify these illegal incursions by Spanish state vessels? and who made up the classification criteria, meaning that a Class A was a Major Incident Type Incursion and then Class B ‘Minor but Illegal Incursion - with 4 additional sub-illegal incursions to choose from.  I say this because although Article 19 of UNCLOS gives a level of flexibility, it does not demote incursions into a Class A, B or even C. UNCLOS merely states 12 different circumstances of passage through someone’s territorial waters! I go further, even if UNCLOS did include a ‘Class A and B incursion concept’ how can anyone by now, particularly a person with any level of knowledge regarding the current dispute with Spain, fail to classify these daily incursions by Spanish state paramilitary vessels anything less, than a Resounding Class A Major Incursion . Especially when you think that these incursions are happening nearly every day (weather permitting) and also importantly, that it involves a high level of belligerence and of ignoring local legislation and of exercising executive and jurisdictional control in BGTW.  The fact that the Guardia Civil enter our waters on a mission from their Government to protect their fishermen, should automatically classify their presence not as so called Class B incursion minor illegal incursion but a Class A major incursion. One other point regarding the incursion chart, it appears that the serious incursion of only a few weeks ago of a Spanish warship in BGTW has either been forgotten or has been classified as a class b or relegated somewhere else, because it’s not logged!  Frankly, I would also like to ask the Governor and those at the Foreign Office why in so many press releases and statements even in the House of Commons, has the incursion classification criteria we now know exists never been made public.  I also think that it was not the Gibraltar Government’s place or role (even if it was a parliamentary question) to either give out or break the news, regarding incursions in the first place, or about a system used to classify different types of incursions. Incursion Issue Watered Down!  To me the whole situation now looks as if the issue regarding incursions into BGTW has been clearly watered down! It now appears that it’s all down to someone deciding somewhere, what is a Class A incursion as opposed to a lesser it seems Class B 1, 2, 3 or 4 incursion. Is this the manner, in which this vitally important national sovereignty related issue for Gibraltar is actually being assessed? By adopting an unofficial measure to classify the daily illegal invasion into our waters by an aggressive neighbour, one can now understand why the Spanish government and their official agencies have grown in stature. And where does this leave policing and enforcement? A right mess if ever there was one. How, can anyone expect the RGP or even the RN Gibraltar Squadron to effectively police or even attempt to enforce a situation, when they probably have to refer to an incursion chart with 5 levels of classification and even that will not help them to determine what to do next if ANYTHING which at the moment is NOTHING!

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