Alex Trelinski
THE ANDALUCIA region has the largest number of foreign immigrants housed by Spain’s central government, accounting for 9,874 people.
That’s followed by the Canary Islands with 6,363 and Catalunya with 6.023.
The mainland figures include those transferred from the Canaries after making perilous boat journeys, as well as people from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
The Community of Madrid (3,935), the Valencian Community (3,123) and Castilla y Leon (2,638) host fewer migrants welcomed by the Government, but figures could change in a short time, because the Ministry of Inclusion is moving numerous people who have arrived irregularly in the Canary Islands from Senegal to the mainland in what it calls a current ‘migratory upsurge’.
The figures are said to be volatile as within a fortnight, Madrid could overtake Catalunya when agreements are signed with Defence ministry to transfer 2,354 unused barrack spaces at two locations.
Murcia City will experience a similar scenario when, next week, the old Naval Hospital takes in 600 migrants- added to the 1,419 migrants that the State has currently placed in that region.
The figures are part of the ‘situation picture’ – as government sources call it – that the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Jose Luis Escriva, and the Secretary of State for Migration, Isabel Castro, provided on Tuesday to representatives of all the autonomous regions and mayors of 22 cities, including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla.
In an online conference. the regions were briefed in an attempt to counter the criticism that PP regional governments had launched against the national government over the redistribution to relieve the pressure on the Canary Islands.
Critics include the PP Community of Madrid president, Isabel Diaz Ayuso and Madrid’s PP mayor, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida.
In the first half of October alone, more than 8,500 people arrived in boats from Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania on the Canaries.
A similar number has arrived in the second half of October-going from 14,976 arrivals on September 30 to more than 28,000 before the end of October and on track to surpass the figures of the great migration crisis of 2006, which had the same points of origin and arrival for 31,000 Africans.
Accommodation in the state network hosts 42,551 foreign immigrants from various areas.
One in three refugees are sub-Saharan Africans; one in four are Latino; one in eight are Ukrainians or North Africans and 5% are Syrians or Afghans.
READ MORE:
- Rights group says at least 951 migrants died in dangerous sea crossings to Spain in first half of 2023
- Spain’s Maritime Rescue service pulls 187 migrants from waters off the Canary Islands’ coasts
- WATCH: Migrants storm beach in southern Spain as authorities reveal hundreds have made the crossing by boat from Africa…
