The Red Cross plans to expand the places to welcome migrants in the Peninsula and the Canary Islands by about 4,000

The families, usually women with children, travel together and are cared for in a special way by the NGO.

   MADRID, 27 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Spanish Red Cross, one of the 19 NGOs working on the emergency reception mechanism together with the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, plans to expand by around 4,000 the number of places available for the reception of migrants in the Peninsula and Canary Islands, after the numerous arrivals to the islands in recent weeks.

This is explained in an interview with Europa Press by the director of Social Inclusion of the Spanish Red Cross, José Javier Sánchez Espinosa, within the framework of the declaration of humanitarian emergency caused by the migratory surge that the Canary Islands are experiencing.

Regarding the operation carried out by the Red Cross to meet the needs of migrants who are arriving in the Canary Islands, Sánchez Espinosa comments that in this month of October, "the arrivals have been very numerous", but adds that, since June, has confirmed a "higher arrival level" than that recorded so far in 2023.

In this context, it details that, initially, the first arrivals in both the Peninsula and the Canary Islands have been welcomed into the NGO's usual humanitarian care system. "As the volume has been very high, at this moment, what we are fundamentally expanding is the reception places, especially here in the Peninsula. It is true that we have also expanded somewhat in the Canary Islands," he clarifies.

The Red Cross collaborates in the organization of the transfers of migrants to the Peninsula, although the referral depends on the State Secretariat for Migration of the Ministry of Inclusion. Thus, Sánchez Espinosa explains that, once they are referred to the new centers, "the way of caring for them will be the same" as in the centers of the humanitarian care system.

Specifically, he details that "there will be a first reception where the first thing is to see what basic needs should be covered and what the accommodation itself is." "And from there, we work on trying to have an approach and a personalized interview with each of the people we welcome, where we can identify if there is any type of vulnerability or some type of illness or whether they may be applicants for protection. internationally, that there may be a person in a trafficking situation," he says.

The final objective of these approaches is to detect these types of situations in order to address them, as well as to know what social networks they may have in Spain and "help them so that they can go to these support networks."

The NGO is also in the process of expanding staff. "I just connected with one of our Social Inclusion directors to ask them to size up and tell us. We have to increase it because, what we have already been working on, it represents a fairly large expansion," emphasizes Sánchez Espinosa, while adding that, In the first moments, to be able to respond to an "immediate arrival and not wait for the hiring processes", the majority of the people who support them are volunteers. In the humanitarian assistance program they have almost 5,000, who regularly support them.

Regarding the professional profiles that serve migrants, Sánchez Espinosa indicates that they are psychologists, legal or health advisory personnel, who are already regularly working in the program. The new hires, fundamentally, are social educators, social workers and monitors for the management of the centers.

These professionals first cover "all the basic needs" of migrants (accommodation, maintenance, health needs), and then proceed to identify any vulnerability that has not been identified "at first sight."

"Above all, now what they ask of us most is to know where they are because they are people who have just arrived and, with great agility, are moving to the Peninsula. To locate themselves, know where they are, know the context and be able to reestablish themselves so that they can arrive to those support networks if they exist and that they can continue giving them help," says the head of the NGO.

Regarding the profile of those who arrive in Spain, Sánchez Espinosa points out that, in a comparison with the same period in 2022, the percentage of women has decreased "considerably", meaning that the majority profile is young people between 18 and 40 years old, who They come alone, "a significant number of Senegalese origin." Normally, they do not spend more than a month in the NGO centers, since "they continue their migration projects to the support networks they may have," according to her.

In the case of the most vulnerable profiles, families that are normally women with dependent children, the attention is different. "In the Canary Islands, they already have specialized centers, which is what we call comprehensive reception, where care is more intensive with our team, especially in the detection of possible trafficking situations, in the detection of family ties, throughout the support that both the minors and the women themselves may need," she maintains.

Furthermore, when moving to the Peninsula, these families are referred not to the new centers that the NGO is opening, but to those of the usual system, which are specialized in this comprehensive reception of more vulnerable profiles. "Families, of course, always travel together. They never separate. And if they are boys and girls, never. Never," he remarks.

Asked if this humanitarian crisis has precedent, Sánchez Espinosa recalls that in 2018, 60,000 people arrived in Spain, the vast majority to the Peninsula. "In 2019 and 2020 there were also many arrivals, but they were to the Canary Islands," he recalls, later adding that the current crisis "is occurring at the time when the route to the Canary Islands has the most arrivals, which is September, October, November." .

"It has some peculiarities compared to other years, but the world situation is what it is and people, when they are in a situation of conflict or in a situation of precariousness, have to look for a way to have a better future. Periodically it goes producing this situation in which there are more people looking for this destination," he reflects.

Given the controversial speeches of some political leaders against migration, the head of Social Inclusion of the Spanish Red Cross assures that the NGO's experience, "fortunately, has always been very good." "There may be some controversy or controversy, but when we get to the places what we usually find are people who come to ask us how they can lend a hand and how they can support these people who have had to abandon everything, have had to leave his family and his whole life behind, looking for a better future," he says, asking: "Let us continue to be as lonely as we have always been."