Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has underlined the importance of cooperation with France, showing his desire to lift controls at some border crossings at the end of April, which affects the Basque Country and Catalonia. Also, it has denied that there is a “massive arrival” of immigrants to the Basque border between Spain and France, as the PNV has exposed and has come to question that the presence of a hundred people is a “massive entry”. The director of Migration and Asylum of the Basque Government Xabier Legarreta has stressed that the regional Executive “is prepared to respond to any scenario circumstantial that occurs “about the arrival of migrants in transit to the border of Irun.
Grande-Marlaska has spoken in this way in a double question about the management of the border and the arrival of immigrants from the Canary Islands made by the PNV and ERC in the Government’s control session in the Senate. The PNV senator Almudena Otaola has complained about the impact that this closure of border crossings has on cross-border workers, students or sports and leisure activities and has also denounced the “massive arrival of immigrants to Irún from the Canary Islands”, something which he has described as an “unusual flow of people”, making it unsightly that it is done without prior communication to the Basque Government.
Grande-Marlaska has recognized the impact of the closure of border crossings but has contested the position of the PNV regarding the transfer of immigrants from the Canary Islands, a controversial issue after multiplying the arrival by the route to the islands due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If 100 immigrants is a massive entry, I don’t know what you would understand in other quantitative concepts,” Grande-Marlaska commented in the government’s control session in the Senate, noting that the figure was obtained from official communications.
The Minister of the Interior has recognized that France has been applying since 2015 in a unilateral manner the closure of some border crossings by the Schengen Borders Code, the last time in a decision in force between November 1, 2020, and the next April 30th. The French authorities, he recalled, allege “internal security” issues for them. We respect the decision of the French Government but we understand that the protection of free movements is an identity element within Europe, Grande-Marlaska pointed out, underlining that the priority must be the external border.
Grande-Marlaska has wanted the controls to be the minimum and essential, recalling that Spain has also been forced to apply them with Portugal due to decisions derived from the state of alarm to stop the spread of Covid-19. It has a deadline, without prejudice to what may happen, as it is next April 30, he concluded. The director of Migration and Asylum Xabier Legarreta has recognized this morning in Irun that the Basque Government shuffles different scenarios and has spaces to “be able to respond to different flows that may occur.
All the people who have approached our resources have been attended, he stressed, while detailing that, throughout this past Monday, 78 lunches and 104 dinners were delivered. Last night 104 people have stayed overnight in the available resources, 16 of them women and three accompanied minors, who are babies and children. A total of 62 migrants have done so in the Hilanderas de Irun shelter, the fixed device managed by the Red Cross 30 at the pilgrims’ hostel in the border city; and 12 at the Hondarribia shelter.
Legarreta has insisted that the Basque Government today is prepared to face an exceptional situation and has stressed that collaborative work is essential for this. At all times we will be prepared to serve all those who come to our resources, he reiterated. The Director of Migration and Asylum of the Basque Government has pointed out that collaboration between administrations is the basis, and has ensured that there are also contracts with the central government, and even with the French Administration in Baiona, because, if not, it would be impossible to give a worthy answer.
Legarreta has detailed that the profile of people who have been arriving at the Gipuzkoa resources since last weekend “is a very similar profile. They are the majority from the Canary Islands, which throughout February reach the resources of the Peninsula and from there they come to Irun because their objective is to reach Europe, he explained.
Likewise, he assured that the scenario faced by the Basque Government in the face of the arrival of migrants in transit is unknown since it is very difficult to have a daily forecast since what we find ourselves with is new people that arrives daily in Irun and with people who leave our resources with the aim of going to Europe and there are some who do not manage to pass and return to the resource. We do not know what scenario we can find each night, but we are working on that, whatever the scenario, we have to be able to respond to the situation, he insisted while underlining that “the intention is that at no time are people on the street and we work without limit of days or time of use of resources.
