Katherine Brook
POLICE on the Spanish island of Ibiza are inviting foreigners to swap parties for patrolling in a new initiative to help crack down on illegal parties.
With most of the big clubs now closed in Ibiza due to the number of COVID-19 cases, ravers are hosting illegal gatherings to make up for the loss of nightlife. But these parties are being blamed for a surge in COVID cases.
To help crack down on the parties, people – specifically ‘foreigners’ – aged between 30 and 40 are being asked to apply for a role in the ‘party-crasher squad’, an initiative which police say is ‘a necessity to safeguard the health situation in Ibiza’.
The illegal gatherings are ‘not only an issue related to public order, which they have always been, but now they pose an obvious risk to people’s health,’ Mariano Juan, a local official, told the Diario de Ibiza newspaper.
“It is not easy as the profile we’re looking for are foreigners between 30 and 40 years old, but I have no doubt that it (the scheme) will be up and running this summer,” he said.
Cases on the party island have climbed to 1,814 per 100,000 people, over the last fortnight, despite the closing of clubs and a ban on mixed-household gatherings between 1am and 6am – anyone found abusing this rule could face fines of up to €600,000.
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