ARCHIVED - Works begin on a new illegal immigrant centre in Cartagena to replace temporary structures

A new centre is being built in Cartagena to receive illegal immigrants arriving by water to the coasts of the Region of Murcia.

Image: Cruz Roja showing the temporary structures used during the pandemic

A new facility, the Temporary Attention of Foreigners (CATE), is being built on El Espalmador next to the Muelle del Carbón in Cartagena to accommodate the immigrants intercepted in their ‘pateras’ by Spanish Maritime Rescue and border patrols out at sea.

The aim is for the CATE to eventually replace the provisional camp opened a year ago in the port of Escombreras, which has been handling the immigrants rescued at sea during the covid pandemic.

Closure of the borders with Morocco and Algeria during the pandemic made the repatriation of those intercepted on the Spanish coastlines impossible, so the network of migrant transit centres around the country was closed. This provoked a surge in the number of people attempting to enter Spain illegally, which in the case of the Murcia Region, co-incided with the growth of criminal networks in Algeria, the result being the arrival of hundreds of migrants in "waves" of small boats.

The Murcia region lacked any sort of facilities to handle these migrants, so temporary encampments were erected in tents inside the container shipping port, a totally unsatisfactory situation for the volunteers trying to work there as well as the migrants themselves.

The solution is the construction of this more substantial installation in which medical checks can be undertaken, as well as Covid tests and migrants received in better conditions, the expectation being that the number of illegal migrants will continue to grow and that the problem of dealing with them will become ever more pressing for the authorities.

Works on the CATE of Espalmador will last approximately six months and are being carried out with a budget of 3.8 million euros, according to a spokesperson from the Government Delegation, who also stated that the Government plans to convert the military lands of the Muelle del Carbón into a base that will bring together all the services that Salvamento Marítimo (marine rescue services) has in Cartagena.

Foundation works have already begun to the complex, which will also include annexed facilities for use by the Red Cross, with another eight departments planned for the National Police.

Officers from the National Police are currently responsible for the custody of immigrants who enter Spain irregularly before they are brought to court and subsequently transferred to deportation centres.

The aim of the facility is for National Police and Red Cross teams to work in a more professional environment than the current provisional camps.

The arrival of illegal immigrants to Cartagena is currently a big problem in the area: thirteen men and one woman being intercepted off the coast last week after being spotted in a ‘patera’ allegedly travelling from Algeria to Spain and this last weekend 162 migrants arrived on Friday and Saturday.