Madrid (EFE) The deadline expires this Tuesday and only Madrid and Asturias have this service for which the Ministry of Equality has already allocated 83 million euros.
Catalonia has warned that it does not intend to launch specific centers for victims of sexual assault because it considers that they already receive assistance in the network created as a result of the 2008 Catalan law, which refers to all types of violence, not only the sexual ones.
However, it plans to reinforce 24-hour care with a new service that will offer psychological care in crisis situations and professionals will travel wherever the woman needs it.
Equality sources have explained to Efe that, despite the deadline set by law, the European funds allocated to these centers can be spent until the end of the year, so it will be then when each province must have this resource.
Consulted by Efe, the different administrations raise different deadlines for its implementation and some doubts about these centers that will care for women victims of sexual violence 24 hours a day and 365 days a year and that will have psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, social workers etc
The Valencian Community, specifically, has explained that it has not put it into operation while waiting for the Ministry to “clarify the lack of definition” regarding the term, since it is a social investment dependent on European funds with a final date of 31 December 2023.
However, the Valencian government has included this service in this year’s budget and the Ministry of Equality is studying the resources offered by the Government in the three provinces, while recalling that the comprehensive care service for survivors of sexual violence It is already carried out in the autonomous centers DONA.
Asturias and Madrid, the only ones that have launched them
In Asturias, the Government launched the Crisis Center for Victims of Sexual Assaults in November 2020, which served an average of twenty people a month last year. In the first two years, it assisted 425 women, of whom 283 were victims of some type of violence and 142 relatives or close friends. In 2022, attention increased by 12.5%.
In the Community of Madrid, the procedures have begun to start up the second crisis center that the region will have, since the first one opened its doors at the beginning of January.
Of the rest of the communities, most hope to open them before the end of the year.
Cantabria puts the month of April as the date and already has the space; a three-story chalet located in the center of Santander, which will have a kitchen to offer a temporary place of shelter for the victims for a few hours until they are referred to homes arranged for long-term stays and shelters.
Navarra will open its center in November and it will be located in the Pamplona neighborhood of Arrosadía, while Euskadi hopes that its centers will be operational before the end of the year and in principle there will be one in each of the three capitals, although the possibility is being analyzed to open another two in Gipuzkoa to facilitate accessibility.
In the Canary Islands, five crisis centers will be ready before the end of the year, although the Canary Institute for Equality recalls that, thanks to their regional legislation on gender violence, they already have specific resources for the care of victims of sexual violence, to whom They are offered advice and accompaniment.
In Castilla La Mancha, the Ministry of Equality is rehabilitating the spaces that will house the centers of the five provinces -which will be located in the capitals- and they hope to open them throughout this year, while Andalusia works on the award of the buildings that They are going to be bought and in the reform of those that will be enabled with an eye on their operation before the end of the year.
From the Aragonese Institute for Women they assure that the three centers (in Teruel, Huesca and Zaragoza) will be ready before the end of 2023, while in Galicia there will be seven centers that will be linked to the health areas.
In La Rioja, after the space was awarded, the construction of the crisis center is in the bidding phase and the work will begin in the second semester, with a view to its inauguration and commissioning in 2024.
In Castilla y León, work is underway to have a center in operation per province by the end of 2023, for which it is necessary to acquire or build the properties.
In Murcia, the Ministry of Social Policy awarded the contract for the future center on February 24, while in Extremadura, the main headquarters will be located in Mérida and there will also be two satellite centers in Cáceres and Badajoz, although none of the Tres has opened its doors, as they are in the bidding phase for works or reforms.
Equality has allocated 83 million euros to communities
To date, the Ministry of Equality has provided communities with 83 million euros from the funds of the EU recovery and resilience mechanism: 19.8 million in April 2021; 46.2 million in May 2022 and another 17 million this past February.
The objective of these centers is emergency care and the recovery of victims over 16 years of age of all kinds of sexual violence.
Victims of rape, forced marriage, genital mutilation, sexual harassment, pimping, sexual exploitation, trafficking for sexual exploitation, stalking or repeated gender-based harassment, sexual femicide and any other non-consensual act of sexual nature.
They will offer care both to victims who have just suffered violence and to those who have suffered it in the past – as well as accompaniment and advice to relatives and close people in case of need – and it will not be necessary to file a complaint.
These centers must have a permanent telephone hotline and will have a free transport service and an informative website.