Rough sleepers living at Madrid’s Barajas Airport will relocate to others like Malaga after new night-time access rules are brought in tonight, it was claimed today. More than 20 security workers will try to stop the estimated 400 men and women using Barajas each night to sleep by limiting terminal entry to travellers and companions between 9pm and 5am in a few hours' time.

Homeless people already use the popular tourist airports of Malaga on the Costa del Sol and Palma in Majorca and have done so for years. Malaga Airport was the scene of a horror crime in October 2016 when British vagrant Steven Allford, 51, was found dead on a bench outside the arrivals terminal. Irishman James O’Byrne, 59, from Cork, was one of three men convicted of killing Steven Allford, 51 and jailed for two and a half years.

Two Finns - named as Jussi Petteri Munck, 41, and Mika Tapio Soininem, 48, also confessed to the Londoner’s manslaughter after striking a plea bargain with prosecutors in March 2018.

Overnight, homeless people using Malaga Airport predicted the problem there would get worse as the get-tough approach kicks in at Barajas.

One woman who has spent the last five years sleeping rough at Malaga Airport said: “More people are going to arrive from Barajas.”

She told respected Malaga newspaper Diario Sur: “Right now things here are calm. We feel very safe and people always help, but that could change.”

Although there are no official figures, around 50 vagrants are believed to live on a more-or-less permanent basis at Malaga Airport.

Their use of the airport is not new, although they have come under the spotlight in recent days following the ongoing controversy about the number of rough sleepers at Barajas.

State-owned airport authority Aena was forced to fumigate several areas of the Madrid airport this month amid fears of a bed bug outbreak. Officials at Malaga Airport have denied bed bugs are a problem.

Today, Carlos Garrido, President of the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies, admitted the pictures of the ‘homeless village’ that has sprung up at Barajas could affect tourism.

He told a Spanish breakfast TV programme: “We have to understand that everything affects tourism and for a tourism superpower like Spain, we have to be aware of the damage this is doing to our image as a holiday destination. It’s very worrying. Security is something that international travellers appreciate.”