MADRID, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Eleven Spanish police and one migrant were injured during a riot at a migrant detention center in the Spanish capital, police sources said.
The riot took place on Friday night at the Center for the Internment of Foreigners (CIE) in the Aluche region of Madrid. Of the injured, only two police were wounded seriously and hospitalized, Spanish media reports said.
The riot at the center, which is currently housing 170 migrants, was reportedly provoked by inmates of Algerian origin while medication was being handed out.
"With great violence," inmates are reported to have used benches as battering rams and attacked the 12 police officers who were on duty at the time.
The center, which has the capacity to house 280 inmates, has been in the news several times in recent months due to a series of incidents, the last of which was in August this year when 13 minors escaped.
According to a report published by the charitable organization SOS Racism Madrid in July this year, residents in the center took part in 15 hunger strikes and 3 collective protests against the conditions there between 2014 and 2017, while there were also 11 escape attempts and 7 attempted suicides.
One of the most serious incidents happened in October 2016 when 39 migrants staged a rooftop protest over conditions which lasted for over 10 hours.
This Thursday saw the Spanish Interior Ministry confirm that 48,669 migrants have reached Spanish territory so far in 2018, more than the combined total of migrants who arrived in the last three years, placing an enormous strain on Spain's capacity to deal with them.
