The Chief of the Navy responds to Vox: "We are not here to fight the cayucos, but to help them"

The Chief of Staff of the Navy (Ajema), Admiral General Antonio Piñeiro, has made it clear that, when faced with a cayuco at sea, the main mission of military ships is to help, save and rescue its occupants if they are in danger, but in no case to "combat" illegal immigration.

He did so during his speech at the New Defense and Space Forum, in response to the leader of Vox, Javier Ortega Smith, who asked him "if he saw it necessary to increase the presence of Navy ships in the Strait and in the waters of the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla to stop illegal immigration that reaches the Spanish coasts through boats."

"Let no one think that the Navy is going to be fighting illegal immigration at sea," Admiral Piñeiro stressed, who specified that they can identify ships that transport human beings illegally or put them at the service of justice, as is being done in the European Union's 'Operation Atalanta'.

"But let no one expect that a Navy ship in a situation of this type is going to proceed to move them away," Admiral Piñeiro insisted. "We are not here for that," he concluded.

The Ajema stressed that the only mission of a Navy ship is to help people. "Let there be no doubt about it. And it is what we can do. The rest is a matter that is above the Armed Forces."

After specifying that the Armed Forces can serve as a tool to help the countries of origin of immigrants as is being done, for example, in Mauritania, he pointed out that irregular immigration is more of a problem for the Government. "And it is not passing the buck, far from it," he said.

To illustrate the harshness that is experienced at sea in the face of this type of situation, the Ajema referred to the European Union's Operation Sophia, which sought to dismantle human trafficking networks in the Mediterranean and in which Spanish frigates participated in humanitarian work, one of the missions "that has most impacted my people."

The admiral recounted the "impotence of having 250 or 300 people in the water who cannot swim, who are going to drown, and you with a boat in which you can put 10 or 20 to get them out of the water and having to choose between one and the other knowing that in the time you go and come back the one you are going to pick up is no longer there. That is very hard," he lamented.