Without spare hands to face the migration crisis in the Canary Islands, which shows no signs of slowing down, the archipelago’s police officers, exhausted and afraid of getting sick, asked this Friday for reinforcements and protocols that guarantee the safety and health of all.
Last weekend alone, another 500 migrants arrived on the small island of El Hierro in Spain. The transfer of seven thousand people to the mainland did not alleviate the situation.
“Right now immigrants are arriving. As of October 31, 30,700 immigrants arrived in the Canary Islands,” highlights Marcos Santiago, general secretary of the Unified Police Union in the Canary Islands, in statements to TSF.
Marcos Santiago regrets the situation, which seems out of control, and reveals that the police work, on average, between 12 and 14 hours a day, without, to date, there having been any type of reinforcement.
“They are not sending us reinforcements and with that we are doing everything. We have a small island called El Hierro, which is where more immigrants are arriving and, there, the National Police does not act, only the Civil Guard, because it is a very small, it has only 11 thousand inhabitants and only in the month of October approximately ten thousand immigrants arrived and that is why we had to send members of the National Police, but it was necessary to remove them from the island of Tenerife and, for that reason, they are working 12, 13 14 hours a day to identify all the migrants who arrive,” he denounces.
Due to the lack of human resources, according to Marcos Santiago, there is also a lack of health security guarantees, which is why, in addition to reinforcing the workforce, the union is asking for protocols that guarantee the safety of those who are exposed to risks. .
“We ask the Ministry of the Interior to try to vaccinate police officers against Hepatitis B, or different Hepatitis, but also against possible yellow fever, as well as provide all police officers who were in direct contact with immigrants with protective glasses, masks, and gloves. and an area to isolate these people – if so determined by doctors – so that everyone is protected against any disease,” he explains.
In recent weeks, some immigrants from countries such as Senegal, Angola, Gambia and Congo have been sent to the mainland, but many still remain on the islands.
“The Ministry of Immigration is taking them, together with the Red Cross, and they are distributing them throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Right now they have taken seven thousand immigrants, but, however, there are still many here in the archipelago,” he added, stating that this situation has already forced the authorities to convert former military barracks and parking lots into places to welcome immigrants.
Source: TSF
