Four Moroccan citizens seeking asylum in Spain escaped from a reception room at Madrid’s Barajas Airport on Tuesday night by climbing through a hole in the ceiling, according to sources from the country’s interior ministry.
After making their way through the roof, the men reached the top of the building and have not been seen since. The National Police have launched a search operation to locate the escapees.
Union representatives cited by the 20 Minutos news outlet have criticized the conditions at Barajas Airport, claiming that the structures provided by airport operator Aena to secure asylum seekers are “completely insufficient and unsafe.”
They argue that the escape highlights significant security lapses, warning that the individuals are now “roaming freely” in an area near critical infrastructure, potentially posing a risk to public safety and national security.
“You cannot work in these conditions without proper security measures or adequate facilities,” union sources said, also warning of the potential danger the escapees could pose to the airport, particularly if they accessed restricted areas like runways or other sensitive zones.
Authorities continue their search for the escaped men.
The incident has renewed scrutiny of the facilities where asylum seekers are held at Barajas. Union data reveal that the airport’s reception rooms are currently holding a significant number of people. Room 3 alone houses 46 asylum seekers and 27 rejected applicants awaiting deportation.
Room 1, a provisional space activated during periods of overcrowding, is sheltering 18 minors and 52 women, while Room 4 holds 78 people.
Humanitarian organizations have long criticized the overcrowded and unsafe conditions in which asylum seekers are housed while their cases are being processed.
The escape comes on the heels of another incident just days earlier, when a group of Sahrawi asylum seekers refused to board a deportation flight and remained at the airport.
Back in August, the Spanish Police Federation (CEP) warned the Madrid airport was running out of space in the designated holding areas for illegal migrants due to a surge in newcomers, primarily Mauritanian nationals leaving Morocco.
It claimed that many undocumented migrants landing in Spain were throwing away their passports and claiming asylum.
The number of new arrivals heading to the Spanish mainland via plane is a drop in the ocean, however, compared with the tens of thousands using boats to land on the Canary Islands before being transported to Madrid on taxpayer-funded flights at the request of the Spanish government.
