Spain has reopened its border with Gibraltar after closing it for most of yesterday in response to the arrival of a bug-hit cruise liner at the port.
As reported, the P&O liner Aurora docked there early yesterday morning with some 500 sick passengers on board; passengers have already been told not to leave the ship when it docked at Dubrovnik, Croatia, and Piraeus, Greece, earlier in the week.
The Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has criticised Spain’s reaction to the incident, calling the closure of the border “unnecessary and disproportionate”. The Spanish government has responded by saying that the closure was for nothing more than health reasons, and highlighted the fact that other countries had also refused entry to the affected passengers.
The ship has now left Gibraltar for Southampton; the Aurora is expected to be back in the UK on Thursday.
