SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 26 Aug (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Jupol union has on Monday condemned the central government’s “improvisation” regarding the reception of migrants on the island of El Hierro and has called for an increase in the number of National Police officers.
This situation, they indicate in a statement, “is pushing the national police of Tenerife to their limits, who, amid the migration crisis, are being compelled to relocate to the island of El Hierro to manage the security services of the CATE established there, services that are being executed in a precarious fashion and without any foresight.”
In this context, they clarify that the Ministry of the Interior “continues to neglect providing the Canary Islands with the necessary materials and human resources” to process the large influx of irregular migrants under optimal conditions and has not formulated a work protocol in the CATE detailing the circumstances under which police custody should occur.
Consequently, the question arises as to “when did the safety of national police officers stop being a priority for the General Directorate of Police?”
Spokesperson Laura García has emphasised that “the situation of immigration arrivals in the Canary Islands is untenable, already surpassing the figures of immigrant arrivals from the cayucos crisis in 2006, and consistently maintaining an influx of over 600 migrants per week.”
This scenario underscores, in her view, the “urgent requirement” to bolster the number of National Police officers in the Canary Islands, “by updating the job catalogue of the General Directorate of Police to align with current policing demands rather than those existing in 2008, the year of the last update.”
The union also highlights the “precarious” working conditions faced by police officers processing these immigrants upon arrival, “with no specific action protocol in place for such cases and operating under a noticeable numerical disadvantage, which jeopardises the officers given the poor security conditions in the facilities where they manage custody.”
Specifically, at the CATE in El Hierro, Jupol reports that the custody of migrants is conducted by four officers during the day and afternoon shifts and three during the night, “and should any issues arise, such as disturbances, fights, serious conflicts, or other incidents, they are left without support from the Civil Guard due to the extremely low number of officers available on the island of El Hierro.”
For this reason, they reiterate “the urgent necessity to implement measures in response to a perfectly foreseeable situation, which recurs year after year on our shores, and that neither the Ministry of the Interior, the General Directorate of Police, nor the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration have managed to address with the resolve required to secure a solution that guarantees the safety and health of both the National Police officers and the migrants.”
