MADRID, Spain – The professional associations ASFASPRO, AUME and UMT have filed a complaint with the Ombudsman to convey the problems they say military personnel deployed in Ceuta are facing amid the border crisis. The organisations are demanding measures to guarantee the safety of troops and allow them to carry out their mission with proper protection conditions.
21 Moroccan Migrants Detained In Ceuta After Stoning Military And Civil Guard Patrols
In the document dated 22 September, the associations state that soldiers have been deployed on the city’s streets for days, trying to enable the population to continue with as much normality as possible. However, they warn that there are circumstances limiting the scope of their actions and making it necessary to reinforce the guarantees under which they perform their duties.
Among their main demands, ASFASPRO, AUME and UMT request that adequate measures be adopted to guarantee deployed personnel the functional information they are legally entitled to know, as well as their legal and personal security. They also call for reinforced risk prevention, both against possible physical attacks and against contact with diseases. They further demand effective protection of the identifying data of military personnel, with the aim of preventing them or their families from being located, with the risks this would pose to their safety.
The three organisations stress that members of a professional armed forces must have their labour and professional rights duly protected, considering that personnel must feel respected and backed in order to focus on fulfilling their mission. The complaint also focuses on the Ministry of Defence and, expressly, on its head, Margarita Robles, with the associations considering that special attention must be paid to the situation of the Armed Forces, which they say have been chaining interventions in different scenarios such as the pandemic, the La Palma volcanic eruption, the DANA storm, fires and operations related to border violations.
To this situation, they add, is added the deployment of military units abroad to respond to various international conflicts, which increases demands on personnel. Finally, ASFASPRO, AUME and UMT warn of the loss of attractiveness of the military profession among young people, which they attribute to working and economic conditions, warning that the places offered are not being filled.
Two Civil Guards Assaulted And One Soldier Injured In Less Than 24 Hours In Ceuta
The associations conclude their complaint by questioning that military personnel have to resort to the Ombudsman to demand the resources and guarantees necessary to carry out their work, stating that military personnel must have adequate means and security conditions to face the missions entrusted to them.
