According to a 1 May 1995 telephone interview with an Immigration official at the Madrid's Barajas International Airport, passports are checked and stamped with the official stamp, for passengers on international flights coming from and leaving for almost all countries, the only exceptions are those countries belonging to the Schengen Accords: France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Benelux, i.e. Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg (ibid.).

The Schengen Accords abolish "controls on persons at the internal borders of the Schengen states" and came into effect on 26 March 1995 (Keesing's Dec. 1994). Therefore, a flight from one of the above-mentioned countries to Spain, and vice-versa, is the equivalent of a domestic flight within Spanish territory (ibid.).

A police inspector at Barcelona's El Prat International Airport stated in a 1 May 1995 telephone interview, that the same procedure applies in Barcelona without exception. However, the Barcelona Airport's stamp might appear less often in a traveller's passport since most international flights are taken from, and land at, Madrid's Barajas Airport.

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Barajas International Airport, Madrid, Spain. 1 May 1995. Telephone interview with Immigration official.

El Prat International Airport, Barcelona, Spain. 1 May 1995. Telephone interview with airport police inspector.

Keesings Record of World Events [Cambridge]. December 1994. Vol. 40, No. 12. "European Union," p. 40334.