SPAIN'S government has upped vigilance at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla in light of the Ebola pandemic and applied strict procedures to protect Guardia Civil officers stationed at the frontier.
A regular point of entry for would-be illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who storm the chain-link fences in their hundreds almost nightly, the Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast means patients affected with the deadly haemorrhagic virus may slip through the net.
Once in either city, they are on Spanish territory and can reach the mainland or islands without needing a passport or going through customs, since it is effectively a trip to another part of the same country.
The immigration centres in both enclaves, overrun with Africans trying to enter Europe via the back door and living in borderline inhumane conditions due to overcrowding, could also be a hotbed of Ebola if any of the inmates have come from an affected country.
Workers at the centres and at the Spanish border with Morocco are now considered 'exceptionally high-risk' and the Federal Police Union has complained that no emergency procedures have been taken for their protection.
This has stirred the government into action, and vigilance already in place at airports has been extended to immigration centres and to the Moroccan border.
But the head of the border police, Emilio Baos, has insisted there is no cause for alarm as yet.
Everyone taken to the immigration centres in Ceuta and Melilla is given a thorough medical check-up and, given the heightened risk of tropical diseases from the central sub-Saharan strip of Africa, are automatically placed in isolation at the first sign of any suspicious symptoms.
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