On July 31, with Ceuta flooded with migrants and no fewer than 80,000 Maghrebis and Sub-Saharans overwhelming a city of 83,000 inhabitants, the Ministry of the Interior sent to the autonomous city, from the Peninsula, a first contingent of 18 riot police.
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But their first task was not, as might be expected, to restore order in the streets. Their first mission, with the people of Ceuta locked in their homes and tens of thousands of migrants roaming freely in the midst of what was called an “attack on Spanish sovereignty” by Pedro Sánchez, “was to provide dynamic security for the visit of the president and Minister Grande-Marlaska”, say members of the police union Jupol.
On August 17, when the minister of Inclusion, Elma Saiz, arrived in the autonomous city, one of the first things she did was meet with the mayor-president of the city, Juan Jesús Vivas. And ask him to add security provided by the City Council to her usual Ministry escorts.
Vivas, surprised, could do nothing but respond negatively. “If he could not provide security to his own neighbors, how was he going to ensure security for the minister, who already came with her usual escort deployment?“, they say in the autonomous government, where the request, with the city on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, caused astonishment.
Just this Monday, members of the Unified Police Union (SUP) complained that the Government Delegation in Ceuta has imposed that a ‘zeta’ car, one of those used to patrol the streets, always provides security during Ángel Víctor Torres’s rounds through the city, who heads the unified command appointed by the Government.
“These are cars that are very much needed on the streets”, they repeat to EL MUNDO in the union, “the citizens need them, the officers cannot keep up with everything going on and the minister [Torres is the Minister of Territorial Policy] already has his own escort”.
Police complaints have been unanimous from day one: the parade of ministers and public officials through Ceuta is reducing personnel and resources for the police forces, personnel and resources “that citizens need as much as food”, say both SUP and Jupol, the major police unions.
EL MUNDO asked the Ministry of the Interior about these complaints this Monday. The official response was: “The reinforcements sent throughout July and August allow the State Security Forces to carry out all the missions currently necessary in Ceuta”.
Sources from the Ceuta Superior Police Headquarters have quantified for EL MUNDO 26 central government public officials who, from last July 31 until this past weekend, have required police accompaniment in the autonomous city. With the president of the Government and six of his ministers at the forefront, logically. Silent throughout the month – until his interview this Monday on Cadena Ser – Sánchez sent to Ceuta Marlaska, Margarita Robles, Sira Rego, and Mónica García, as well as the aforementioned Torres and Saiz.
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Javier Padilla, Secretary of State for Health and the real strongman of the Ministry, also visited the city, along with a host of lower-ranking officials who also required police accompaniment, presumably to guarantee their security.
At the same time, the people of Ceuta and their own president, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), have constantly complained about the lack of territorial control by law enforcement, with national police and civil guards completely overwhelmed from the first day of the crisis, which if it has not recorded more dangerous situations has been because citizens have regularly self-confined and a large majority of migrants have so far acted relatively prudently – although in the last week, with tensions very high, confrontations have already been recorded -.
Jupol told this newspaper that they “share the discomfort of the national police assigned to Ceuta regarding the decision to have to assume static security services linked to visits by Government members, while the security situation in the city continues to be especially delicate”.
“It is not reasonable,” these sources continued, “to divert personnel from citizen security, prevention, and incident response duties to assign them to static protection services during institutional visits”.
Jupol demands “the Ministry of the Interior and the General Directorate of Police guarantee a sufficient and specific allocation of personnel for Ceuta. It cannot be allowed that police resources are diverted from citizen security in the critical situation Ceuta is experiencing for static security, and to have a car and two police officers completely idle to provide security to political personalities who already have their own security capsules”.
“Members of UPR [Prevention and Reaction Unit], UIP [Police Intervention Unit], Intelligence, Immigration have already been sent to the city so far,” explain the SUP, “but assigning a zeta car to a minister who already has his own escort makes no sense, and a zeta is a lot for a city like Ceuta on a daily basis: there will be no more than five zetas patrolling each shift, and you cannot have one for the minister”.
This source continues: “The officers who do this type of static surveillance also hear over the radio how other colleagues need help with the number of interventions that have to be made every day in Ceuta, and they logically go up the walls”.
