Monday, July 22, 2024, 3:11 PM
The Region of Murcia demanded this Monday the direct intervention of President Pedro Sánchez in the conflict that various autonomous communities have with the central Administration regarding the reception of the thousands of immigrants who have arrived in the country due to the migration crisis.
At a tense meeting of the Sectoral Conference on Immigration to which the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration had summoned the communities and the Federation of Municipalities, the Minister of Social Policy, Families and Equality, Conchita Ruiz, conveyed to Minister Elma Saiz her concern about the high tension suffered by the reception services of the Community, as well as the need for the central Executive to promote “extraordinary” measures to face a situation that it considers unsustainable and of which the Region has been “warning for more than ten months.”
For this reason, he asked the central government, together with other autonomous communities, to declare a migration emergency and urgently call a conference of presidents “so that the president of the central government assumes responsibility, provides information to the autonomous communities and, above all, proposes a real response plan to this migration crisis,” a problem of “large dimensions that requires large-scale responses and responses at the highest level,” he said.
Visibility before the European Union
Regarding the declaration of emergency, the minister said that it was necessary “to make the seriousness of the problem that Spain is facing visible to the European Union and the international community.”
The head of Social Policy explained that the regional government was hoping to find at the Sectoral Conference “a response from the central government through the Ministry of Inclusions in line with this crisis” which it has not found.
The Region, he recalled, is one of the most affected by its status as a “natural gateway for migrants on small boats,” and currently has a temporary place for their care in the camp set up in the old naval hospital in Cartagena. There, the Region currently houses 759 people, “in addition to those who are homeless,” he explained. And he warned that the Region of Murcia currently has almost 100% of the 1,321 emergency places it has available occupied.
He also stressed that the Region is already assisting 253 unaccompanied migrant minors and has received 2,205 requests for family reunification.
Ruiz announced that the Ministry will soon convene the Regional Immigration Forum to analyze the migration situation with the Third Sector and channel all the information from the various available resources to “try to obtain the information that we are not obtaining through the formal channels that we should,” he said.
“It is incomprehensible that at this point the Government of President Pedro Sánchez is still not assuming its responsibility and is calling us to a sectoral conference without a clear migration policy and without economic funds to help the autonomous communities and municipalities manage the reception of migrants in an equitable manner and with guarantees,” he said.
Reform of the Immigration Law
In this regard, he stressed the importance of having funding and resources that allow us to address the situation of immigrants beyond the initial reception, to guarantee “adequate care and inclusion in the medium and long term.” Ruiz insisted that Murcia is a “solidary” region, referring to the overflow that the Canary Islands are experiencing, but warned that under current conditions it does not have the means to be able to care for more immigrants. “We are not receiving any type of funding, any type of coordination, any type of information from the Government to carry out the correct and adequate care of the people who come to our region and our country.”
Regarding the reform of the Immigration Law that will be voted on this Tuesday in Congress, and to which the Popular Party has shown its opposition, the councillor insisted that Murcia “will never accept imposition” when it comes to distributing unaccompanied foreign minors without sufficient funding, although she pointed out that this matter was not addressed during the meeting of the sectoral conference “because it only affects unaccompanied minors”.
On the other hand, the head of Social Policy revealed that the Ministry is considering promoting “a general reform of the regulations of the foreign network” on which the Region is willing to work. “The documentation was received by the communities this morning at half past eight. It is true that they have given us a deadline until September 10 to make observations and contributions, and of course this community is going to do so because we are facing a problem of great dimensions and it requires the work of everyone to solve it in the best way,” she concluded.
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