Spain to create emergency accommodation for 3,000 migrants

AfriHKa
Oct 27, 2023
3 min read

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MADRID — Spain said on Thursday (Oct 26) it would create additional emergency accommodation for 3,000 undocumented migrants in military barracks, hotels and hostels amid a 55 per cent jump in arrivals by sea this year, which has triggered political tension.

Migrations Minister Jose Luis Escriva told reporters the government had approved using two military facilities in Madrid and plans to use two other in the south of the country.

Escriva declined to disclose how many additional beds will be created, but a ministry source told Reuters it would be around 3,000 in total.

The arrivals' surge has been mainly driven by people coming from West Africa on dinghy boats to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic and comes after European Union countries sealed a deal on Oct 4 on how to handle irregular immigration.

Italy has also experienced an uptick in arrivals, with the small island of Lampedusa struggling to cope with it.

Between January to mid-October, arrivals to the Canaries reached 23,537 people, already surpassing the full-year figures for each of the previous three years, official data shows.

Local authorities have said they feel abandoned by the central government. Madrid opened new camps in the archipelago in 2021 following an increase in arrivals.

But this time the central government's approach has been to expand emergency accommodations across the country, hoping to ease pressure on the Canaries. It also approved this week a 50-million-euro (S$72.29 million) aid package for the islands.

Following police screenings, migrants will be placed in the military barracks, hotels, hostels and other types of accommodations on a voluntary basis, the ministry source said. The idea is for them not to stay in the same place for more than three months.

Madrid's conservative regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso accused the leftist government of mismanaging the migration situation and suggested, without providing evidence, that the transfer of migrants to the mainland could compromise security.

Escriva argued the situation was well-handled and manageable, and said some conservative politicians were whipping up what he called xenophobic rhetoric.

Source: Reuters

西班牙将为3000名移民建造紧急住所

马德里——西班牙周四（10 月 26 日）表示，今年通过海路抵达的移民数量猛增 55%，引发政治紧张局势，因此将在军营、酒店和旅社为 3,000 名无证移民增设紧急住所。

移民部长何塞·路易斯·埃斯克里瓦告诉记者，政府已批准使用马德里的两个军事设施，并计划在该国南部使用另外两个军事设施。

埃斯克里瓦拒绝透露将增设多少张床位，但一位卫生部消息人士告诉路透社，总数约为 3,000 个。

入境人数激增的主要原因是来自西非乘坐小船前往大西洋加那利群岛的游客，而欧盟国家于 10 月 4 日就如何处理非正常移民问题达成了协议。

意大利的入境人数也有所增加，兰佩杜萨小岛正在努力应对这一情况。

官方数据显示，1月至10月中旬，前往加那利群岛的游客数量达到23,537人，已经超过了前三年的全年数字。

地方当局表示，他们感觉被中央政府抛弃了。随着入境人数的增加，马德里于 2021 年在群岛开设了新的营地。

但这一次中央政府的做法是在全国范围内扩大紧急住宿，希望减轻加那利群岛的压力。它还于本周批准了一项针对这些岛屿的 5000 万欧元（7229 万新元）援助计划。

该部消息人士称，经过警方检查后，移民将在自愿的基础上被安置在军营、酒店、招待所和其他类型的住宿地点。这个想法是让他们不要在同一个地方呆超过三个月。

马德里保守派地区领导人伊莎贝尔·迪亚兹·阿尤索指责左翼政府对移民形势管理不善，并在没有提供证据的情况下暗示，将移民转移到大陆可能会损害安全。