Pedro Sánchez leaves foreign personnel without guarantee of vaccines in countries with serious risk of Covid

Staff assigned to embassies in countries with a high risk of Covid also do not have guarantees of an urgent vaccination. The complaint has just been transferred to the Government by the CSIF union, which has echoed the “strong concern about the lack of control of the virus in southern countries” and the lack of a specific vaccination plan for the most exposed personnel. has already demanded Muface “the priority vaccination of personnel in embassies of Asia, South America and Africa”, because “thousands of public employees and their families need the health protection of their Government and do not have it,” they emphasize from the union. The Central Sindical Independiente y de Civil Servants (CSIF), the most representative union in public administrations and with a growing presence in the private sector, has called on the Government to guarantee a vaccination schedule for personnel dependent on Spain abroad and, in especially, in those countries where there is a shortage of vaccines or where mass vaccination plans are non-existent. From CSIF they point out that “currently, there is great concern There are about 7,000 public employees and that is why we have urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make a list of the most vulnerable countries to start the vaccination process there, but we still have no response. ”CSIF has raised this question to the mutual society of civil servants Muface and from this mutual, the response they have obtained is that “they are evaluating the situation to respond to the vaccination needs of this group, in coordination with the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs.” The union insists on its message and it goes to more:“We raise the need for a voluntary and temporary Repatriation Protocol to be established without financial penalty for public employees of the most affected countries.” Huge uncertainty Sources from CSIF point out that the uncertainty is enormous, since the workforce does not know if they will be vaccinated in their destination countries or in Spain, if they will have to travel on their own or if the Administration will take care of the expenses of their travel, among other issues. In addition, from CSIF they point out that this week they have sent “a letter to Foreign Affairs in the that it is warned that new colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and associated organizations such as the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) or the Cervantes Institute will soon go abroad to fill positions abroad who do not know if they will be able to receive the vaccines before joining. ”From the union, they emphasize that they have“ evidence of numerous episodes of contagion in repr Diplomatic representations of particular concern, as in the case of the Spanish Embassy in Paraguay, but also in Argentina and Peru, among many other countries. It is a priority to ensure that public employees who go abroad do so with all security guarantees, even if they are not within the age range established to be vaccinated. “” The lack of coordination between Health and Foreign Affairs is leaving in limbo to all these public employees, so they must provide an urgent solution to the lack of protection of civil servants and contracted labor, who are maintaining an exemplary service in all diplomatic missions ”, adds CSIF.