In what was an astonishing revelation at the press conference held last week at the Eliotts Hotel the members of the committee for March For Justice confirmed that there is a strong belief amongst the non-EU residents that the authorities in Gibraltar are giving preferential treatment to owners and executives of a high net worth value instead of non-eu workers who have been resident in Gibraltar for over 10 years or more.

Reports have emereged in recent weeks that various non-EU residents have been refused residency status in Gibraltar with no apparent reason after having lived in Gibraltar for over 25 years, yet similar applications made by managers of various firms, who had non-EU status were immediately accepted for residency.

The situation in Gibraltar is said to have angered non-EU residents who have formed that new March for Justice Committee with a view to challenge the system.

When asked if the committee proposed to take matter further than the local authorities if there was evidence that the Government was not willing to act upon their requests, a spokesperson for the committee did not reject taking the matter to the European courts or the European Commission stating that "all avenues will be looked into and we shall take every step necesssary, but we shall take it one step at the time."

It was also indicated that there was no indication of the criteria followed by the local governmnet when passing immigration laws, with the committee stating that they will be seeking reasons behind the laws being implemented. They further added that they did not see how a lack of accommodation could be a reason behind the present laws since as one member stated, " we are responsible people, we will look at the situation before applying for full residency and we look at the accommodation situation before bringing our families over if needed. It is unfair to ask us to leave our loved ones behind, when we get older we get lonely like everyone, and we would like to be with our wives at least. It is unfair on us."