Police chief disciplined by Spanish authorities over migrant-hunt ploy

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
7 Jun 2023 23:54

Spain has faced serious backlash due to its poor handling of the rising number of predominantly sub-Saharan African migrants seeking a better life in European countries.

Spanish police department. (AFP)

The chief of the migration department at Basque's regional police administration is facing disciplinary action by Spanish authorities after the whistle was blown on a migrant-hunting scheme that involves granting police guards extra days off in exchange for detaining more illegal migrants, Madrid's representative in the Basque Country said on Wednesday.

The Jupol police union revealed that staffers of the immigration and border force in Irún would be given two days off if they worked Saturday and Sunday and made a number of arrests. Those who arrest one migrant would be given three days off, those who arrested two migrants would receive four days off, and those who arrest more than ten people would be given five days off.

"The case of Irun is an absurd mistake that was corrected as soon as it was noticed and that has led to the opening of a disciplinary procedure," Spanish government delegate Denis Itxaso said on social media.

"I’m very sorry that this image of the police has been given as it does not live up to what the police, who would never act in this manner, actually do," he added. "These procedures died out in the police many years ago. It’s a ridiculous mistake that was fixed as soon as we became aware of it."

Spain has faced serious backlash due to its poor handling of the rising number of predominantly sub-Saharan African migrants seeking a better life in European countries. The police in Spain particularly have a poor reputation with regard to their handling of the migrant crisis.

Back in July 2022, what seemed like an "unfortunate event" on the Morocco-Melilla border was, thanks to videos circulated by the media, a massacre that brutally killed 37 mostly-African refugees coming from Chad, Niger, South Sudan, and Sudan.

Over 150 were injured in the systemic violence, which included charges and beatings by security forces coming from both the Spanish and the Moroccan sides.

The scene at the border was hardly representative of Spain's "democratic" values. After refugees, fleeing wars that have no end in Africa, climbed fences that were erect 6 to 10 meters high, they were beaten up violently by Spanish police, that worked in close coordination with the Moroccan authorities, calling them in illegally.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez articulated his full support for the border guards' actions, demonizing the refugees as attackers on the "territorial integrity" of Spain.

Europe’s imperialist viewpoint of the world comes as no surprise – the increasing militarization and systemic brutality of the continent’s armies are resurrecting grounds for fascist violence on its borders as well as its neo-colonies.