The Diplomat
The trade unions represented in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation have sent a letter to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in which they denounce the “passivity” of the Executive to solve the problem of the vaccination of Foreign Service personnel, a discomfort that The Diplomat has already reported.
The same letter, signed by CCOO, CSIF, FEDECA/ADE, SISEX and UGT, has also been sent to the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya and the Ombudsman, Francisco Fernández Marugán.
In the document, to which Europa Press had access, they regret the “passivity” in the face of the requests made in recent months regarding the vaccination of staff stationed abroad, some 7,000 people, and those who will soon have to take up posts outside Spain.
“It is regrettable that to date they have still not taken the necessary steps to ensure that, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities, vaccination of civil servants and employees of the foreign service, as well as their families, is carried out in those countries where it is necessary,” they state in the letter.
In this regard, they recall that a list of countries whose health conditions are considered to be precarious was requested, and that those who are stationed there should therefore be given priority for vaccination, but so far this has not been done.
In addition, they warn that some countries are planning to inoculate people with vaccines that have not been approved by the EU and in others “there is not even a vaccination plan”.
Therefore, given the “inaction and lack of planning”, the unions are calling on Sánchez to draw up “a specific vaccination plan for staff abroad, as well as their families, immediately”.
They also raise the possibility that all of them can be vaccinated at the Foreign Medical Office, taking advantage of their trips to Spain, as well as prior to their departure to their destination abroad.
They also demand clarification as to why Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry staff posted abroad have already been vaccinated, while Foreign Ministry officials have not.
“It is painful that this situation has come to this,” say the unions, who point out that Foreign Service staff “are plunged into unrest and unease” and many of them are carrying out their duties in “particularly difficult circumstances”.
In the face of repeated complaints from the unions, González Laya, during a joint press conference yesterday with her Croatian colleague, Gordan Grlic Radman, attempted to justify the situation, arguing that in Spain “there are civil servants who have not yet been vaccinated”.
According to the minister, when the vaccination process began in Spain, she sent a letter to the countries in which Spanish civil servants are stationed “proposing an exchange of vaccinations” in such a way that Spain would vaccinate Spanish civil servants if they would vaccinate Spanish civil servants.
This vaccination would be carried out in accordance with the “protocols” that each country would adopt for inoculating its own citizens and without giving them “a specific priority”, she clarified. She assured that, for now, “more than 50 countries have already complied with this guideline”, although she acknowledged that there are other countries where this has not happened, due to the existing insecurity, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali and Niger.
González Laya said that, in these cases, her Department is “looking for specific solutions with the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities” and trying to find answers that “are in line with the possibilities and capacity”.
In some cases, she said, they will look for ways to get the vaccine to these countries, and in others “they will facilitate the arrival of the officials in Spain”. Until now, the demand from workers to be vaccinated has not been met when they travel to Spain.
In any case, González Laya insisted that “there are also many civil servants who have not been vaccinated in our country because it has not yet been their turn”.
