The Spanish Association of Civil Guards (AEGC) has once again demanded from the Ministry of the Interior "more resources and more personnel for the Canary Islands."
In a statement, it states that "as every year the Secretary of State for Security, dependent on the Ministry of the Interior, has once again announced with great fanfare the reinforcement of agents in coastal areas for the summer period and one more year has forgotten about the Canary community."
"This is not the first time that AEGC has had to denounce this oversight. We have been demanding reinforcements of both material and personnel for the Canary archipelago for years, which at this time, in addition to facing the increase in tourists, are overwhelmed by the arrival of boats with immigrants who take advantage of the better state of the sea to arrive on European soil," adds the group of civil guards.
For AEGC, "we cannot speak of an oversight or a planning error on the part of the Secretary of State for Security, but rather it is a recurrence." "That is why we ask ourselves if, for the ministry, the citizens and tourists of the Balearic Islands, Andalusia or Levante have more right to security than those who choose the Canary Islands to live or rest," he questions.
In addition, he states that "the situation is even more serious" because "as in other years" they find that "the lack of reinforcements is added to the agents who are going to enjoy their vacation period, so the civil guards of the scarce staff are once again the ones who, with their overexertion and professionalism, are going to try to make up for the lack of personnel." In this regard, he points out that the "decrease" of agents "is especially serious in the Canary airports, where tourism is beginning to rebound, with the opening of the English market, with hardly any personnel to attend to the greater traffic of visitors and the departure of England from the European Community, having to increase both tax and personal records as they are non-Community, thus increasing the waiting lines due to the evident lack of personnel."
"In terms of citizen security, the situation is very similar and the solution offered is the same as every year, to remove personnel from some positions to reinforce others, that is, to provide a better service in some units, others are left totally unsupplied. Or two police officers from other European countries are brought for 15 days to take the photo and make it seem that the service is being reinforced," criticize the AEGC, from where they consider that "the Canary Islands, being a mirror and spearhead of our tourism, and deserves better treatment in terms of security."
For the AEGC, "once again, the Ministry and the Secretary of State value more achieving a good headline in the press than giving a solution to a problem that is already entrenched in the community, such as the lack of personnel and resources." "And we are convinced that next summer will come and we will find ourselves in the same situation again: the Canary Islands will be left out of the distribution of reinforcements due to lack of foresight and for saving a few euros in allowances for the civil guards who would have to reinforce all services," he concludes.
