There Spainwhich puts two overboard NGO ships with its flag to go and collect migrants in the Mediterranean, who are then inevitably landed in Italy, it is the European country that accepts the fewest asylum requests. This is what emerges from the report by the Iberian NGO Cear, which found that, despite the Iberian country being the third in the EU in terms of number of asylum requests received after Germany and France, it is at the bottom of the list in terms of number of requests that were then accepted. In fact, on the data available for 2023, it was found that Spain only accepted the 12% of the total of requests that have been forwarded, against the European average of 41% and approximately 3 points less than in 2022.
Yet, Spanish governments have on more than one occasion criticized Italy for the migrant management strategy adopted by Palazo Chigi over the years. And it cannot be overlooked that, in addition to granting the flag to the ships of two non-governmental organizations operating in the Mediterranean, there is the case of the City of Barcelona which was established in 2021 civil party in the Open Arms trial underway in Palermo. The reason lies in the fact that the municipal administration financed the ship and, therefore, the blockade imposed by the then Italian Minister of the Interior would constitute a pecuniary damage for the city, as well as image. Beyond the peculiar habit of foreign administrations, Spanish as well as German, of financing ships flying their flags to disembark migrants in Italy, and then complaining when problems arise, there remains a hostile policy on the part of Spain towards migrants. But only when they are on their territory.
Also as a consequence of the restrictive policies adopted by Italy in the last year, the Atlantic route which from Senegal leads to Spain and, in particular, to the Canary Islands. Since our government began to make agreements with Tunisia and Libya, controls on the Mediterranean coasts have been intensified, departures from North African spots have reduced and migrants have found the north-west passage as an alternative. Yet, despite the migration peak in 2023, accepted asylum requests are declining.
The report notes that during 2023 they persisted “chronic problems with asylum appointments, which continued to fuel an irregular market for buying and selling appointmentsthe”.
This, the NGO explains, has meant that thousands of people find themselves in a total situation lack of protection and in legal limbo for periods of up to nine months, compounding the difficulties for migrants and refugees to access basic rights in Spain. Furthermore, just a few months ago, it was April, the Spanish parliament announced the regularization of half a million irregular immigrants but for the moment the provision remained a dead letter.
