CEUTA, Spain – Police unions have strongly pushed back against government assertions that the situation in the autonomous city of Ceuta has returned to normal following a massive migration influx, arguing that deployed reinforcements remain grossly insufficient. The backlash follows recent statements by Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who suggested that the border crisis had stabilized, a claim union leaders vehemently dispute.
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Representatives from the National Police Union JUPOL stated that officers were caught completely off guard during the mass border crossing, facing a massive surge of people with inadequate personnel and material resources. Initially, only about 40 riot police officers were stationed in the city to manage the perimeter. This number was later bolstered by 60 additional agents, with 40 more dispatched to the area recently. Despite these additions, union leaders maintain that the force is still overwhelmed by the thousands of migrants remaining in the enclave. They warn that as days pass without adequate care for the stranded individuals, rising hunger and thirst could spark further conflicts, making the current reinforcements entirely inadequate to maintain order.
The unions emphasized that the lack of preparedness was not a sudden failure but a chronic systemic issue. Officers on the ground had reported a steady increase in irregular border crossings in the days leading up to the mass event, yet no preemptive reinforcements were sent. Furthermore, union representatives pointed out that the official staffing catalog for Ceuta has not been updated in years, leaving the European border chronically under-resourced and obsolete in the face of modern migratory pressures.
Echoing these sentiments, the Unified Police Union (SUP) criticized the management of the crisis and dismissed the notion of normalcy as an insult to the reality on the ground. While the most dramatic scenes have subsided as some migrants returned to Morocco, thousands remain in the streets and surrounding mountains, leading to continued altercations among the migrants and with local citizens. The SUP also highlighted that the temporary immigrant center was already over capacity before the mass crossing, with migrants camping outside its perimeter. Additionally, the union noted that they had previously warned that a recent Supreme Court ruling prohibiting immediate pushbacks for those arriving by sea would create a pull factor, a concern they say was entirely ignored by authorities.
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Beyond the operational shortcomings, both unions condemned the severe working conditions endured by the deployed officers. Personnel are reportedly working double shifts under grueling circumstances, sleeping on makeshift mattresses, and surviving on minimal rations of two sandwiches and a bottle of water. Union representatives highlighted that officers are forced to work excessive hours for negligible overtime compensation and inadequate daily per diems, often requiring them to cover their own basic living expenses out of pocket while managing the overwhelming border crisis.
