MADRID, Spain – Ceuta has recorded two episodes of violence against members of the state security forces and the armed forces in less than 24 hours, according to the Unified Association of Civil Guards. In one case, two Civil Guard officers were assaulted during an intervention on the Explanada Muelle de Poniente, while in the second, a soldier was injured in the early hours and suffered a fractured fibula and shoulder injuries.
21 Moroccan Migrants Detained In Ceuta After Stoning Military And Civil Guard Patrols
The first incident occurred on Friday, 11 September, at around 12.45pm, when a Civil Guard patrol commissioned by the COS Central of the Ceuta Command attended to support a military patrol during the identification of five undocumented Moroccan men who expressed their willingness to return to Morocco. During the intervention, one of the men turned on one of the Civil Guard officers and gave him a strong push in the chest. When the officer tried to control him, the individual resisted and a struggle ensued, requiring his colleague to intervene to assist him. According to the association, the assault also reached the second officer and all three ended up falling to the ground, before the two Civil Guard officers managed to subdue the man using the minimum force necessary. The attacker was sentenced that same morning to two years in prison and expulsion from national territory, a measure the convicted man himself opted for according to the association.
The second episode occurred during the early hours of Saturday, around 4am, in the Juan XXIII area. According to the association’s account, a military patrol was proceeding to identify a group of migrants who were in a state of intoxication and had allegedly offered resistance. One of the members of the group attempted to flee and, during the escape, pushed one of the soldiers, who fell among the rocks. As a consequence of the fall, the soldier suffered a fractured fibula and shoulder injuries. The events will be brought to the attention of the judicial authority, though the alleged those responsible were not detained at the time, as the injured soldier’s companions, upon hearing his cries of pain, prioritised his assistance and care over containing the rest of the group.
The Unified Association of Civil Guards considers that these two episodes reflect a situation that, in its view, is repeated in Ceuta and cannot be reduced to a question of perception. In its statement, the organisation asks whether it can be called subjective insecurity when in barely 24 hours injuries have occurred to members of the security forces and armed forces. The association stresses that an injury to a wrist, a fractured fibula and a conviction for assault within hours are not subjective facts, adding that for those who patrol the border, and for the neighbour living 50 metres away, this is not a sensation.
12 Arrested After Migrants Ambush Army Vehicle in Ceuta, 4 Soldiers Injured
The association also values the conduct of the officers in both episodes, assuring that the fact that the interventions did not end in an excess responds to the preparation and training of the personnel, but criticises that officers are demanded to show millimetric restraint while, it denounces, they work with insufficient staffing and scarce means, in addition to institutional backing it considers belated. In this sense, the association calls for permanent reinforcements of personnel in Ceuta rather than temporary deployments, as well as material means in accordance with the circumstances of the city and the border, also requesting real legal protection for officers who are assaulted and definitive recognition of the profession of risk.
