Spain’s Federal Police Union (UFP) on Sunday denounced the “absolute collapse” of Ceuta’s overworked police forces, pushed to their limit by the mass illegal migrant invasion of the embattled enclave.
The police union is demanding the Spanish socialist central government deploys reinforcements to help the exhausted policemen in Ceuta amid rising violence — with a group police officers working long shifts to process a massive amount of asylum requests presented by alleged asylum seekers that swarmed their way into the Spanish North African Exclave in late July.
The UFP denounced the dramatic situation to several Spanish outlets on Sunday, elevating the union’s protests and demands after one of the overworked police officers in Ceuta suffered a heart attack over the weekend and was urgently admitted to a local Intensive Care Unit (UCI).
The Federal Police Union is reportedly attributing the officer’s heart attack to the “brutal level of stress and pressure” that police officers are facing as a result of the invasion.
According to El Pueblo de Ceuta, the UFP insists that the invasion of Ceuta has left a crisis that goes beyond migration, with the arrival of thousands of illegal migrants overwhelming the operation capacity of the exclave’s police forces. The chaotic late July events plunged the Spanish North African exclave into a far-from-resolved crisis including, but not limited to, a surge in crime, sexual and other forms of violent assault, and the systematic collapse of Ceuta’s healthcare services.
Spanish National Police Inspector Serafín Giraldo, the current head of the UFP, explained to Antena 3 that the police officer who suffered a heart attack was assigned to a local migration office handling asylum requests. Giraldo denounced that officers currently working at the office are subjected to intensive work hours “from 08:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.” In some instances, the police inspector stressed, officers have had no choice but to take double shifts and work for over 15 hours per day at a time.
Giraldo emphasized to Antena 3 that the situation leaves little recovery time for the officers.
“Reinforcements are urgently needed. The system has completely collapsed; the Ceuta Immigration Office has very few resources, both human and material,” Giraldo said, and denounced that asylum requests filed Ceuta and return procedures have “increased in an extraordinary manner,” further straining the overworked policemen.
The Federal Police Union also stressed upon the deterioration of security and safety for Ceuta’s residents, specially during night time. Per El Faro de Ceuta, the UFP is also demanding police reinforcements, noting that current police numbers are insufficient to face the altercations, fires, robberies, brawls, and violent assaults plaguing Ceuta.
The police union emphasized that ever since the invasion took place, officers have had to respond to a large number of incidents involving stabbings, home invasions, and serious injuries. Police officers have also found themselves facing violent individuals armed with sticks, knives, machetes, and even pellet guns.
“The UFP maintains that there have already been attacks against members of the State Security Forces and the military, and warns of the risk involved in intervening in large-scale brawls without, it claims, having sufficient personnel to ensure the officers’ safety,” El Faro de Ceuta wrote.
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