Spanish ‘safe cities’ hope to offer a haven for refugees

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/spain-refugees-indignados-safe-cities

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The Spanish government, led by Mariano Rajoy, may have dragged its feet in response to pressure from Brussels to take Syrian refugees, but Barcelona, Madrid and several other cities governed by councils with roots in the indignado movement took the initiative with a network of “safe cities” to assist some of those arriving in Europe.

Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona, started the ball rolling when she announced the launch of a register of families willing to open their home to refugees or simply help them. It proved an immediate success. Thousands of Catalans emailed their details to the list.

A dozen cities have signed up to the scheme. Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena has been looking at “ways of alleviating the distress”. Valencia plans to open emergency accommodation for refugees and is allocating 110 social workers specifically to look after children. Several councils have asked banks to release housing stock that has been vacant since the property market tumbled. Other cities involved include Pamplona, Zaragoza, La Coruña and Malaga.

Colau said the predicament of people fleeing war and persecution was “shameful, condemning Europe for dodging the issue and criticising the “ridiculous” figure initially proposed by the Rajoy government to cope with the crisis.

The Spanish government has since agreed it would accept its share of migrants under the European commission’s proposed new quota system, according to AFP. Spain agreed to take in another 14,931 refugees as proposed by the commission, in addition to the 2,379 it had initially said it would accept.

The government had initially announced that it would only be accepting 2,379 refugees, as part of EU efforts to solve the crisis, whereas Brussels had initially wanted it to take 5,849.

At a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in Madrid earlier this month, Rajoy climbed down, saying that Spain had never refused asylum to anyone, neither in the past nor now.

Spain has done more than many other EU member states to tighten up border controls. According to a report by the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid, published in June, 180,580 people have sought asylum in Spain in the past 30 years, whereas 202,645 filed an application in Germany in 2014 alone.

This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde