OUR Spanish The police are conducting an internal investigation against a senior police officer in the city of Irun, on the border with France, for allegedly giving subordinates days off depending on the number immigrants that were arrested.

A circular issued on Tuesday by the chief of the border guard was rescinded hours later, and today “an investigation has been launched,” a police source said.

The circular determined that the days off the police would receive depending on the number of arrests they made by the end of the week in this region of the Pyrenees, from where many migrants try to enter France. “Two days” for no arrests, “three days” for one, “four” for two and “five” for ten arrests, according to the document, which was condemned by the police union Jupol.

The investigation was carried out by the General Directorate of the National Police.

The non-governmental organization Irungo Harrera Sarea, a migrant support network in the Basque Country, expressed concern that “police officers who go after migrants are being rewarded.”

Many migrants arriving in Spain from Africa then try to get to France. According to a multi-NGO report published in early May, at least 12 people were killed between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022 while trying to cross the Pyrenees. In 2022, five trafficking networks were dismantled in the French Basque Country and 144 traffickers were arrested.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.