Bilbao (EFE).- Spain only answers affirmatively to 5% of the applications for asylum or international protection, according to what those responsible for Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin have stated, who have highlighted “the complication” and the administrative “obstacles” they face this people.
Said “obstacles”, they have specified, do not occur in the case of Ukrainian refugees, for whom the figure of temporary protection was activated in the EU after the invasion of Russia and the start of the war.
This protection is granted within 24 hours.
This very fast option means that “if you want, you can facilitate the procedures for everyone, regardless of their origin,” as highlighted by the president of the aforementioned NGO, Javier Galparsoro.
Galparsoro has appeared at a press conference together with the director of the same association, Arantza Chacón, to disseminate the data on its performance in the Basque Country in 2022.
Basque Country data
According to their data, 4,086 asylum applications were submitted in the Basque Autonomous Community, of which 2,023 were submitted in Bizkaia, 1,044 in Álava and 1,019 in Gipuzkoa. These figures are still below those registered before the covid pandemic.
By nationality, the majority belong, in this order, to citizens of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Morocco, Honduras and Nicaragua.
In the case of people from Ukraine, there were 4,046 applications for temporary protection, which were granted to all applicants.
The vast majority are women with minors in their care, who were referred to the reception network arranged by the Spanish Government.
The rest of the nationalities, who process their cases through the figure of international protection or asylum, were referred to the centers of Oñati (309 people, mainly families with children) and Tolosa (116 single men).
Galparsoro has insisted on the “great difficulties” of this last group to start their asylum application process, which begins with the request for an appointment through the police website that “always responds that there is no date available.”
Asylum application deadlines
“The law gives a period of one month to request asylum, but since the computer system does not work, the period passes without being able to start the process,” he explained, adding that once the request is managed, the administration You must reply in six months, but usually you do so in 2 years and in the negative.
“It is only granted in 5% of cases,” he said, and urged that “focus” be placed on compliance with the rights of these people.
Arantza Chacón, for her part, has stressed that, in view of the upcoming local elections, this NGO will meet with all the political parties to ask them “not to use refugees in their speeches and to build spaces for coexistence.”
He has specifically referred to the controversy caused by the refugee center that the Spanish Government proposes to install in the old Arana clinic, in Vitoria, and has opined that “it is better to care for people individually.”
Javier Galparsoro recalled that the NGO, created more than 25 years ago, has promoted “all kinds of reception models because it works with the emergency and with people; the Administration, instead, works with numbers », he has reproached him. EFE
