Early in 1992 Britain was rudely reminded of the hazards of maintaining a virtually autonomous colony which operates at arm's length from the Foreign Office but for which the Foreign Office holds ultimate responsibility. When things go wrong, the mother country takes the blame.

On 3 February the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants published a report accusing the Governor of Gibraltar of inflicting ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ on thousands of Moroccans’ who came to work in Gibraltar after General Franco closed the border with Spain in 1969. The drafting of some 5,600 workers (all but 600 were Moroccans) to the Rock during the 1970s enabled Gibraltar in general—and its military bases in particular—to survive the blockade. Problems arose largely because the situation was viewed as being temporary, but in fact lasted for 16 years, by which time the guest workers had put down roots and did not wish to return to Morocco. The men were given temporary resident permits, conditional upon their having a job, on the assumption that they would return to North Africa when things returned to normal. Most left their families behind; they had to live in overcrowded, squalid hostels. Some men were deported because they no longer had a job, and when wives and children came to visit and tried to stay, they, too, were deported on the grounds of being unemployed. Some 2,500 Moroccans remain on the Rock; if any of them are laid off, they are liable to be deported, too.