Madrid airport is running out of space in the designated holding areas for illegal migrants due to a surge in newcomers in recent weeks, the Spanish Police Federation (CEP) has warned.
The organization cited a large number of Mauritanian nationals leaving Morocco as a challenge currently facing border staff. Apparently, many undocumented migrants are landing in Spain, throwing away their passports, and claiming asylum.
Spanish police said the situation had started to become worrying at the end of June when arrivals of Mauritanians increased by 350 percent compared to the previous month.
They added that most of the arrivals are men under the age of 30. There are also some who claim to be minors, hoping that this will speed up the processing of their asylum applications.
The police union is asking the Spanish interior ministry to resolve the situation immediately, as between 140 and 170 illegal immigrants are currently arriving in at Barajas Airport every day and waiting in the reception rooms.
The authority is also demanding that the Spanish government take action to ensure that the flights on which these people arrive comply with the rules regarding security checks; this is demonstrably not happening, as most Africans do not even have transit visas without which they should not have been able to depart.
Police officers at the airport believe that the Mauritanian flights are as much the work of a migrant mafia as the open water entries, with the Canary Islands as the primary destination.
“Both the Home Office and the Foreign Office, as well as the European Union, need to take urgent action to stop the influx of illegal migrants before it becomes a more serious problem,” the police federation wrote in a statement.
“The system for asylum seekers at airports must be prevented from collapsing,” it added.
