Policía Nacional officers went to the Hospital Universitario de Ceuta after the incident on 1 November to assist the nurses. The two women had been treating a patient when they were attacked, according to the report.
CSIF condemned the assault and put its protocol for attacks on healthcare staff into action. The union said the nurses would receive psychological support and legal assistance, and planned to file a complaint against the alleged assailant. It urged INGESA and the Delegación del Gobierno to adopt urgent protective measures.
The union links its security concerns to the withdrawal of military patrols from the hospital perimeter. On 28 October, CSIF Ceuta warned that the patrols had been withdrawn. It said migrants were still being treated at the hospital and recalled earlier altercations involving alleged physical and verbal attacks on orderlies and private security guards. Defensa had begun reducing military personnel at posts around Ceuta after major settlements were dismantled. CSIF says the perimeter patrols acted as a deterrent and described staff as left “desamparado”; it wants security personnel and military support returned to the complex.
On 29 October, SATSE Ceuta said military personnel assigned to the Hospital Universitario and the Servicio de Urgencias de Atención Primaria (SUAP) had been ordered back to their barracks. No replacement security arrangement had been introduced at either INGESA facility. SATSE also described a difficult morning in the hospital emergency department, including an incident in which a detained migrant allegedly bit a police officer who had been brought to the hospital for treatment. Healthcare professionals called the emergency service a “feria de agresiones.”
Healthcare services were still treating patients who had arrived in Ceuta, including people living in El Príncipe and in camps set up by the Gobierno, the report said. EL ESPAÑOL also reported, citing sources at INGESA, a separate fight inside the hospital involving a migrant who was heading to the Centro de Atención Temporal de Extranjeros (CATE).
RUSSPAIN has reported on a separate police deployment during clashes in Palma. That incident was unrelated to events at the Ceuta hospital.
