The Government delegate maintains that the lighthouse road site will only work for “one year or less”, while it moves to La Algameca
The temporary care center for foreigners (CATE) in Cartagena will open in “hours or a few days” and will be in its discussed location in the port area of El Espalmador “a year or less, if possible.” This was announced this Monday by the Government delegate in the Region, José Vélez, who visited these facilities accompanied by the superior chief of Police, Ignacio del Olmo, the chief commissioner in the city, Damián Romero, and the head of the Citizen Security Brigade. from the Cartagena police station, Francisco Jiménez Ávila.
Workers from different companies carry out the last assemblies in the area located on land along the city’s seafront. In addition, the electrical connection is missing -although there are diesel generators- and the telecommunications module that will allow access to different files and digital services of the Police. The modules to house the immigrants rescued at sea during their first hours in Spain are already ready, as well as those that will be used by the police officers in charge of caring for and guarding them.
The venue has a capacity of three hundred people, with spaces reserved for unaccompanied minors (‘menas’), families and women. It also has a dungeon to detain alleged pateristas, before they are brought to justice.
Three pateristas arrested
Three of the 209 immigrants who arrived last weekend on the shores of the Region in another new wave from Algeria are detained accused of skippering boats: two of them have already entered prison and the third, in a juvenile center. Increasingly, the mafias use boys who have not yet turned 18 to skipper the boats, knowing that their criminal responsibility is minor.
The delegate and Del Olmo consider the staff of agents to deal with illegal immigration and the center for foreigners to be adequate
The enclosure also has facilities for the use of officials from the European border agency Frontex, as well as the police services for Immigration, Scientific Police and Citizen Security. All identification procedures and procedures will be done ‘in situ’, without the need to travel to the police station in most cases. There will also be modules for the use of lawyers who advise immigrants and there is space reserved for the Red Cross to be installed. This NGO provides the first health and social care to foreigners rescued at sea.
Vélez was satisfied with the imminent opening of CATE because “the important thing,” he said, is that “immigrants who arrive by boat can be served by the Red Cross and the National Police in the best possible way.” Likewise, he praised the “patience” and professionalism of the police officers who have been working in precarious conditions for three years in the Escombreras port camp that acts as CATE.
The approach of the Ministry of the Interior, on whom the center depends, is that the El Espalmador site, widely rejected by the people of Cartagena and by the Navy due to its location, works for about a year. By then the definitive one must be built on another military land located on the slopes of Mount Galeras, next to the mouth of the Benipila boulevard, in La Algameca Chica. In this way, the agreement between the Interior, Defense, the City Council and the Port will be fulfilled to free up that space, where port facilities, recreational spaces and a beach had previously been planned.
In relation to the complaints of the police unions and the associations of the Civil Guard due to the shortage of troops to deal with the devices against illegal immigration, Vélez stressed that in this legislature “not only have the 322 policemen and civil guards lost with the government of Mariano Rajoy, but there are 41 more troops».
In this regard, Commissioner Del Olmo stressed that the police force in the region and the sporadic reinforcements with riot units arriving from Granada are sufficient to attend the CATE with “flexible deployments”, even when there are waves of small boats. “It’s the most effective and efficient way to manage resources,” he said. The device of officials will vary depending on the occupation of a center in which immigrants do not spend more than 72 hours. Different collaborating NGOs in the migration program are responsible for taking them to sheltered centers and flats.
The El Espalmador CATE has cost the State 3.8 million euros, most of it from European funds. The mobile modules to accommodate immigrants and police services will be used in the future location of Galeras.
The majority association of civil guards asks for more agents in the Maritime Service and Citizen Security
The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) denounced yesterday “lack of necessary troops” to face the wave of boats registered on the regional coasts during the weekend. The association, the majority in the Corps, brings together 25,000 Civil Guards throughout the national territory and 50 percent of the Civil Guard staff in the Region.
In a statement, he publicly denounced that “irregular migration is on the rise” and that the waves of small boats “exceed the forecast of the Civil Guard due to the lack of troops.” Both in Citizen Security and in the Maritime Service, for the fight against irregular immigration and, at the same time, attention to the rest of the functions and tasks that we must fulfill, “said the association.
For AUGC “it is urgent that the Maritime Service templates be increased with at least 50 operational personnel and all the barracks on the coast to be able to more effectively monitor and intervene in the largest wave of small boats this summer.”
Despite the fact that the Government delegate, José Vélez, insisted in Cartagena that the Police and Civil Guard have more troops in the Region than three years ago, AUGC criticized that the high number of immigrants and boats “has overwhelmed the Citizen Security patrols as well as the Maritime Service, especially when they use the entire Murcian coast as a point of arrival with more than 250 linear kilometers in length ».
The association denounced that, in addition, there is insecurity in the transfer of immigrants on board the ships of the armed institute since they are not prepared for it. He also recalled that, at dawn on Saturday, the Civil Guard and the Local Police of Águilas were “overwhelmed” by the continuous arrival of “taxis boats.” In addition, he demanded a suitable place to guard the immigrants before their transfer to Escombreras.
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