Riot agents from the National Police have been deployed at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport in a new week of “chaos” due to asylum seekers from African countries. Some of them are waiting in the corridors of the international zone due to the collapse of the three rooms that house migrants, waiting for a fourth room to come into operation this Monday.
The National Police unions estimate that there are currently about 400 people in the rooms and corridors of Barajas in a situation of “overcrowding and unhealthiness”, as they have been denouncing since December.
In addition, they report that there have been moments of tension this weekend due to arguments and fights between migrants. Likewise, they report that there are cases of problems in identifying each asylum seeker with their file, as well as delays in the cleaning service due to the “lack of coordination” with AENA when authorizing the entry of the employees of the reinforcement assumed by the General directorate of police.
After a Madrid judge annulled his authorization to refer migrants to the Aluche CIE, the unions say that some of them leave the airport on buses, presumably because their stay in Spain has been authorized or because they are at the expense of an NGO.
When asked about this issue, sources from the Ministry of the Interior referred to the press release of last Thursday, January 25, when they announced security reinforcements and that they were “urgently” preparing a fourth room to deal with asylum requests. The forecast is that it will be operational this Monday.
Regarding figures for asylum seekers, the Ministry of the Interior provided data on 847 files processed between December 1 and January 15 of people from countries mostly Senegal, but also from Kenya or Morocco.
This past Tuesday the Red Cross announced that it was temporarily withdrawing from the Barajas facilities due to the chaos with the care of migrants. For its part, the Government has imposed transit visas on Senegalese and Kenyan citizens to try to avoid the “fraudulent” use of stopovers and asylum requests, although Police unions are asking to do the same with Moroccans.
The Ministry of the Interior had authorization from a judge in Madrid for the transfer of asylum seekers from Barajas to the CIE in Aluche, but the same judge annulled the authorization after an appeal from the Prosecutor’s Office because he understood that the procedure of the law had not been respected. of asylum. Previously, around twenty migrants escaped from the airport while waiting for their file to be processed.
The fourth room for asylum seekers joins the three that are already operational: one in Terminal 1, with 796.77 square meters, equipped with six bathrooms; another in Terminal 2, with 110 square meters of surface, provided with two bathrooms; and a third in Terminal 4 Satélite that has an area of ??160.91 square meters and four bathrooms.
Last Thursday, the Unified Police Union (SUP) presented an emergency complaint to the Labor Inspection due to the persistence of the “unhealthy conditions” in which police officers work at the airport. In addition, he has demanded that the actions of the Royal Air Maroc company be investigated for the daily flights from Casablanca.
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, acknowledged from Rabat that there was “fraudulent” use of international flight stopovers to countries that do not require visas. Until now, transit visas have been requested for Kenyans and the same will be done for Senegalese starting next December 19. According to calculations by the Spanish Police Confederation (CEP), 87% of asylum seekers in Barajas are nationals of this African country.
The National Police, to expedite the procedures for applying for international protection, has reinforced the number of police officers dedicated to carrying out interviews at the border post with agents from the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders and the Provincial Brigade of Madrid. In total there are 54 agents distributed in shifts who provide service every day of the week and the security service has also been reinforced.
