ARCHIVED - Migrant transit centres to be re-opened in Spain following increased pressure from migrant boats

The National Police is also no longer willing to accept that repatriations cannot be undertaken and has requested diplomatic action to resume the expulsions process

This week has seen an intensification in the numbers of irregular migrants arriving along the Spanish coastline, overwhelming marine rescue services, the coastguard and the Cruz Roja which has been offering humanitarian aid to those crossing in small boats (pateras) to Spain.

It’s an emotive subject, which has sparked a great deal of debate in Spain recently, the recent rise in numbers causing resentment within the various police services, which are already stretched to breaking point trying to handle the huge additional workload created by the covid crisis, upsetting the local and regional governments who must try to accommodate and cater for hundreds of illegal migrants in covid quarantine without having suitable facilities in which to house them, causing significant problems for the health services which have had to care for covid positive migrants, the majority of whom speak no Spanish, within the hospital system, which has included contracting private security companies due to the number of break-outs from hospitals (in Cartagena for example, one covid-positive migrant tied his sheets together and climbed out of a third floor hospital window in the middle of the night) to say nothing of the resentment the situation has evoked in the local populations of the areas where the boats have been landing.

Knowing that a percentage of the migrants are covid positive has caused protests and anger, a situation here in Murcia which even reached the national press on the day a group of Los Alcázares residents were videod hurling abuse at a group of migrants who had been temporarily housed in a private property run by the Cruz Roja whilst attempts were made to house them so that quarantine could be observed.

The number of boats arriving has continued to increase: during a 48 hour period earlier this week nearly 600 migrants in dozens of boats landed in the Murcia Region, Alicante province, along the Andalusia coast and on the shores of the Canary and Balearic Islands; the straw that finally seems to have broken the back of the camel representing the Policia Nacional, the national police body which has responsibility for immigration.

There are many sides to this complex problem, the first being that those making the crossing to Spain are virtually all economic migrants, NOT refugees, and in the last few weeks the majority have been Algerians.

Neither Algeria or Morocco are EU members and there are no automatic residency agreements for nationals of either country to live in Spain other than through acquiring a visa, tied to an employment contract, or by having sufficient funds to support themselves, the same as for any third party national. Most of those entering Spain have neither, so are illegal migrants, irregularly entering the country by boat.

The crossings from Algeria are now being operated by criminal gangs, hence the change in the pattern of the way the boats arrive, so rather than a boat be purchased by 3-4 people who cross when the weather forecast seems favourable, the runs over to the Spanish coast are now being organised by commercially-driven gangs, charging significant sums of money to make the run in boats carrying 12-18 people with powerful outboard motors, a large number of boats departing at the same time to spread coastguard resources as thinly as possible.

Normally, attempts are made to repatriate any of these migrants detained and they are temporarily housed in Foreigners Internment Centers (CIE) which were temporarily closed during the Covid lockdown as the borders of both countries were closed, so it was impossible to repatriate anyone entering Spain illegally in this fashion.The centres were all emptied by May 6th and since then, migrants have been released once they have been tested and found to be covid negative as Spain has no legal jurisdiction to hold them past a 72 hour period without a judicial expulsion order being issued.

This, in turn, has fuelled the number of arrivals and the National Police has now ordered that as of Wednesday, September 23rd, the Foreigners Internment Centers (CIE) will re-open in order to house the migrants until they can be repatriated.

In an official letter dated September 23rd, the General Secretariat of the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders informed the Territorial Operational Coordination Units of this decision, which affects the CIEs of the mainland peninsula and the Canary Islands (this includes the Santomera CIE in the Region of Murcia).

The document states that “operational activity” is “restarted” in the CIEs of the peninsula with the internment of Algerian and Moroccan citizens arriving by boat and in the CIEs of the Canary Islands for sub-Saharan immigrants arriving from Mauritania.

The letter also orders that the Central Repatriation Unit carry out the "appropriate procedures with the consulates of the countries of origin to be able to reinitiate the expulsions processes”.

CIEs are non-penitentiary police facilities and are designed to contain irregular migrants in order to execute expulsion from Spain. The law allows migrants to be kept within the CIE for a maximum of 60 days and, if they have not been returned to their countries of origin within this period, they must be released. In order to facilitate a repatriation, they must be identified and their country of origin proven; this process can be difficult and as a result only around a third of migrants are actually repatriated.


EU unveils new migration plan which removes the unpopular refugee quotas system
Migration has been a long-running divisive issue for the EU and this week Brussels unveiled plans to overhaul an unpopular EU migration policy which has caused deep divisions amongst EU members.
The majority of migrants arriving in Spain are, as stated above, are economic migrants, NOT refugees, so the bulk of the new proposals change little for Spain as the plan seeks to return more failed asylum-seekers to their home countries and meet the demands of some northern and central European nations that refuse to accept relocated migrants.
The new proposals seek renewed initiatives to repatriate more failed asylum-seekers, a process which also achived a 31.5 per cent return rate success last year (similar to the level achieved by Spain regarding economic migrants). Non-EU countries which fail to co-operate risk losing European visa rights and those which are helpful are promised benefits such as investment. Nations opposing mandatory relocations of asylum-seekers from the Mediterranean nations where most arrive can provide alternative help instead.
Spain has found a collaborative approach towards both Morocco and Algeria the most successful route to reducing the numbers of migrations; investing into schemes which help to prevent the migration occurring in the first place and help to create jobs in both countries has proven a practical avenue through which to help improve the situation in the past.
“It will be really key to see how member states deal with these people, what rights they will have — and who will monitor their situation,” said Hanne Beirens, director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe think-tank speaking about the new plan on Wednesday.
European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen called it a "European solution... to restore citizens' confidence".

Even before the planned pact was laid out Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said it would not work. Hungary's nationalist government, which has consistently refused to house refugees, said the EU's external borders should "remain perfectly sealed along all sections".