A Civil Guard agent who participated in the police operation of the El Tarajal tragedy – in which 11 immigrants died when they tried to swim to Ceuta – has managed to have the justice system recognize his permanent incapacity for his profession due to the post-traumatic stress that He has suffered since then. The civil guard, who was prosecuted for eight years for a crime of homicide, has battled in the courts to have it considered that the disorder he suffers was triggered on February 6, 2014. The National Court has agreed with him against the Ministry of Defense, which agreed to his retirement unrelated to an act of service.
The uniformed man was providing border coverage service at the Ceuta Command. That morning he was required to go to El Tarajal beach, after about 300 migrants tried to swim across the breakwater that separates the Ceuta beach from Morocco.
—I went down to the beach, I entered the sea up to my knees to attract the attention of the immigrants. Some gained ground and fell to the ground completely exhausted, with torn clothes, scratches, and a lot of fatigue. We saw bodies floating in the water and we attended to those who had reached the beach…
The NGOs denounced the civil guards for shooting rubber bullets at those without papers. The Supreme Court ended up confirming the file of the case for the death of the 15 migrants – although the Constitutional Court will review it. But that was not until 2022.
In the days after the event, the agent who has now won his fight in court saw his photo appear in the local newspapers. He began to have nightmares, reproduce images of the event, suffer irritability, shocks, fear and guilt, according to the sentence to which La Vanguardia has had access. This, added to the accusation of homicide and reckless injury, increased his state of hyperalertness.
With a weakened state of mind, he worked until the summer of 2015, when he was discharged from work. On February 17, 2017 he was back on duty. That day, at the border fence, there was another massive jump attempt. And he was required. Eight civil guards to try to contain half a thousand migrants trying to enter Spain.
The superiors ordered not to use riot gear, even with the Tarajal precedent too present.
—Upon arriving at the site there is a true unequal pitched battle: the immigrants have broken the fence, they are carrying hooks, clubs, knives…, the sentence reads.
The agent describes that he felt short of breath, with pain on both sides of his side and chest area. Furthermore, a high degree of nervousness took over him. He had to retreat to the Civil Guard vehicle, where his colleagues approached to inquire about his state of health, and he was transferred to a medical center. There it is confirmed, through a medical report, that he suffered an anxiety crisis. A day later he was discharged from service due to mental illness.
During these years, the civil guard was treated by different psychiatrists who diagnosed him with adaptive anxiety disorder caused by the events that occurred during both interventions. The agent was also a soldier, which is why, according to what he has defended in court, he previously faced stressful situations without psychopathological consequences.
With this background, the Evaluation Board unanimously agreed to propose that his permanent disability be declared in non-duty service. The Undersecretary of Defense, by delegation of Minister Margarita Robles, agreed to declare her incapacity, unrelated to an act of service. Something she didn’t agree with.
A contentious administrative appeal was filed by his lawyer Antonio Suárez-Valdés against the resolution by which he was retired, the Central Courts of the National Court have agreed with him, declaring that the permanent incapacity for service due to insufficient psychophysical conditions of the agent occurred in the act of service.
According to the lawyer Antonio Suárez-Valdés, the sentence represents “an important boost to the agents who work on the fences of Ceuta and Melilla, who in his opinion had been carrying out their work in conditions of absolute defenselessness, as the executive refused to consider events in the act of duty, the injuries that they may develop in the exercise of their work.”
