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Date Published: 08/10/2024

The Great Escape: Irregular immigrants flee from Madrid Airport through hole in the wall

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In the past 4 days, 10 asylum seekers have made a break for it while being detained in Spain’s capital airport

The Great Escape: Irregular immigrants flee from Madrid Airport through hole in the wall

Imagine a scene from a Hollywood action movie: a group of desperate asylum seekers, trapped in a detention centre at a major airport, hatch a daring plan to escape. They create a hole in the wall, crawl through the ventilation system and make a break for it, fleeing into the night.

But this is no movie script - it's real life, and it's happening right now at Madrid's Adolfo Suárez airport.

In less than a week, 10 asylum seekers have made a break for it, with six Moroccan citizens escaping through a hole in the wall of the airport's reception room on Monday October 7. It's the second escape in just four days, after another four irregular immigrants made a similar break last Wednesday.

The escapes are a result of the "improvised and insufficient" conditions at the airport, according to the police union Jupol. The union claims that the airport's operator, Aena, and the Ministry of the Interior have failed to come up with a solution to prevent the escapes.

"Nothing has been done," said a representative of the union. "Since the first escape, the only thing that has been done is to put two chairs so that two police officers can control the exit and yet it has happened again."

The overall situation for both the asylum seekers and the officers charged with guarding them is dire, the union says. The immigrants, who are waiting in one of the airport's halls to have their requests for asylum processed, are being held in "unhealthy" conditions.

Meanwhile, police officers trying to prevent the escapes are working with minimal resources. "If two immigrants come out, they can be caught, but if six come out, they can't," said the union representative.

"This time, they were able to arrest three, but the other three ran away. If 100 come out, it's impossible to control them all."

The union is warning that the situation is on the brink of chaos. "There are about 100 people in that room right now, if they decide to leave suddenly...", said the representative. The union is calling for the involvement of all administrations to resolve this "unacceptable" situation.

Unbelievably, the temporary solution offered by the authorities, in addition to the two chairs, is a sweeping brush placed between the asylum seekers and the police officers.

"We cannot work in these conditions, without security measures and without adequate conditions," the police unions stressed last week, pointing out the "seriousness" of not knowing where the fugitives are going after fleeing :

"They can cause a critical security incident by running wild in a critical structure. They can go out onto the tracks or to various places where they could endanger security."

"The Barajas airport's non-admitted lounge does not meet the minimum safety or health conditions," concluded Jupol spokesperson Ibón Domínguez.

In other news: Euromillions jackpot winner goes missing in Spain

Images: Jupol

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