Two National Police unions, SUP and CEP, have sent a joint statement to defend the new tents and barracks installed on a plot of land next to the police station, which will function as a Temporary Immigrant Care Center (CATE).
The statement contrasts with the statements made a few days ago to this media by another union representative, in this case from Jupol, and highlights the division that this infrastructure has generated among the police unions themselves.
“We value the opening of the new CATE as an advance for police work,” defend SUP and CEP, who do question the current warehouse that is used for that purpose. “An industrial warehouse on the outskirts of the municipality that lacks the minimum standards for the provision of police service with migrants, as well as its habitability”, they warn.
Therefore, they consider that the new infrastructures represent an improvement. “After a long time of administrative and bureaucratic procedures, a CATE will be opened in Arrecife that will allow, due to its location near the pier and the National Police Station, to carry out all police procedures in a more agile and safe manner within the maximum period of 72 hours established by current legislation,” they allege.
Regarding its operation, they explain that “for strictly police work there are modules destined for Immigration, Scientific Police and to carry out the procedures for legal assistance required by law, also having a unit equipped with air conditioning and power outlets for the security area of the installation”.
Regarding the facilities for migrants, they defend that they have been carried out “by a specialized company that is dedicated to the assembly of field and military hospitals of this type in more than 70 countries and with different organizations and NGOs”. In addition, although neither the Ministry nor the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands have given explanations so far, the unions are the ones that explain what their capacity will be: “They will be able to house 200 migrants and have bathrooms, showers and air conditioning, guaranteeing the safety of the installation as they are fireproof and fully disinfectable”, they point out.
Regarding the CATEs, they explain that they are “police centers where all the procedures established by the Immigration Law are carried out for migrants who arrive irregularly on our coasts”. “They are not a center where migrants can enter and leave as they please, since they are detained while they are under police custody until the administrative procedures required by the regulations are completed and after their release they are referred to the resources available to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration,” they add.
For his part, the Jupol spokesman described those facilities in the back of the police station as a "disgrace." “It's not what they promised us,” he denounced, warning that they had already notified the occupational risk prevention delegate, so that he could visit as soon as they are put into operation, “to see in what conditions the body works.”
