Every day thousands of
passengers arrive at Malaga airport. Police need to spot suspicious looking characters, especially
those that are trying not to look suspicious. Only the most cool headed criminals get through without having their passports scrutinized, because the police are expert at picking out the bad apples.
Police check an average of 2,500 passports every day at 8 passport control points. The airport police in charge of this task are members of the National Police Force, and each year they intercept more than 150
passengers passing through Malaga airport who are wanted by police somewhere in the world.
Illegal
immigrants tend to come from Switzerland, Eastern European and African countries. During a busy week, airport police can check the passports of up to 21,000 passengers arriving from these countries. Criminal organisations involved in illegal immigration generally use half-way countries from which to distribute their human cargo, Switzerland is a favourite and the Costa del Sol is a favourite final destination.
Malaga airport is one of the principal entry points for illegal immigrants travelling by air. As in the case of the African immigrants crossing the Straits of Gibraltar, there are so many gangs willing to supply false passports and visas, for a price. The unfortunate would be immigrants pay between 1,000 and 3,000 euros for a false passport.
Falsifications come in all types and levels of realism, the most common methods used are scanning of originals and substitution of photographs on genuine documents. This is relatively easy to do, but difficult to get away with should the police decide to scrutinize the document. The paper behind the photograph has a watermark, if it has been tampered with, on close examination this will show up.
Barcelona airport police hold the record for the number of illegal immigrants they catch on their way into Spain, Malaga comes in second.