The inadmissible rooms of Barajas airport are once again the scene of violent incidents months after these reception centers for immigrants suffered a tense overflow due to the excess of asylum seekers. On this occasion, the police unions denounce a “riot” that occurred last Sunday in room 3 of Terminal 1, where reinforcements from the Prevention and Reaction Units (UPR) of the National Police had to intervene to prevent the people involved, Mauritanian citizens, from fleeing.
The incident occurred on Sunday around 7 p.m., when three of the 75 immigrants – mostly Mauritanians – who were in the aforementioned inadmissible room, where they are awaiting the outcome of the processing of their asylum application files, “began to take on a violent and aggressive attitude” after learning that his request had been refused and they were going to be deported to their country of origin.
At that moment, according to Nadia Pajarón, spokesperson for the United Police Union (SUP), the immigrants attacked the police officers who were there and began to break the real estate present in the room. Finally, They managed to break the magnet on the exit door and gain access to the landing.“The rest of the inadmissible people imitated this violent behavior and the escorts, outnumbered, had to ask for reinforcements from the UPR,” the SUP explains.
Official sources from the National Police confirmed to Ep on Monday that They sent reinforcements to Barajas after being alerted by the coordination room of the Madrid airport. The troops intervened quickly and managed to contain what the police unions called a “riot”. These same sources assured that it was an interpreter in person in the asylum room who redirected the situation, without escape or injury. As ABC learned, the UPR reinforcements sent to Barajas spent the night there to avoid other possible attempts.
From the SUP, they demand that the competent institutions, both the General Directorate of Police, the Government and the AENA, adapt the conditions of the inadmissible rooms, which they consider “totally insufficient”. “Let them agree and take the necessary measures as soon as possible to prevent situations of this type from happening again and for us to have to regret a misfortune tomorrow,” the union reiterates. It also demands that the government update job catalog with the aim of ensuring that there are enough police officers to deal with this type of incident.
In the same spirit, the Spanish Police Confederation (CEP), which also denounced the “riot” in a statement, requested that “Urgent empowerment” of troops of the National Police of Barajas to avoid new incidents in the future in the rooms when migrants await the result of the processing of their asylum application or refusal.
Last January, these escape attempts were repeated on at least two occasions. In the first, a group of nine Moroccans managed to escape from Room 4 of the inadmissibles that houses Terminal 4. They did so by breaking the false ceiling that covers the cabin until reaching the area where the Red Cross works and from there they broke another window and escaped. The following night, 17 Moroccans escaped from another of these rooms, located in Terminal 1, through a window.
