The Secretary General of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has demanded this Wednesday that dignified attention be guaranteed to migrant people in Ceuta and has warned that, to support a possible delegation of powers in migration matters to Catalonia, the approach should be based "on human rights." For this reason, she has expressed her rejection of the police reinforcement in the autonomous community, of the detention centers for foreigners, and of the raids against migrants.
"It would not be accepted if those people were white. And that is why it is racism. From here, we demand that the Government provide dignified attention," she emphasized.
Belarra has highlighted that in June nearly ten million tourists arrived in Spain and that since 2022 around 350,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the country "without anyone saying absolutely anything." "So we cannot say that a few thousand people are a challenge for our country, for the fourth largest economy in the euro," she protested.
In this line, she has denounced that "people cannot be kept" in the conditions in which the migrant population is found in the autonomous city. She pointed out, among other aspects, that only "six people" have been identified in an entire month of the 82 deceased on the day of the jump to Ceuta, and has described it as intolerable that "asylum seekers and girls and women who have suffered sexual assaults are not attended to" and that "the law is not being complied with."
"It is unacceptable. It has a name, because this would not be accepted if those people were white. And that is why it is racism. From here, we demand that the Government provide dignified attention. That the deceased persons be identified. That their families can bury them with dignity. That these people can be received humanely," she criticized.
In conclusion, she insisted that what happened in the autonomous city during the month of August "must stop and cannot be repeated," and has conveyed her "deep gratitude" to the neighborhood organizations of Ceuta that have provided first aid and support "to the thousands of people in a humanitarian situation at the limit whom the Government has completely abandoned."
Poor humanitarian management and relationship with Morocco
Belarra has also called for an urgent review of Spain's relationship with Morocco and the end of the outsourcing of borders. "The outsourcing of borders must end by opening legal and safe pathways for migration. And diplomatic and commercial relations must be broken until this situation is resolved in accordance with human rights," she has pointed out.
In her view, the Executive has carried out a poor humanitarian management "in a totally calculated manner," and has argued that the Government's response in this crisis has hardly differed from that of Morocco. "They do not differ in terms of what Morocco has done when we are deliberately mistreating people as punishment to Morocco," she lamented.
Criticism of Junts' migration law approach
Regarding the bill that Junts plans to register to transfer migration competencies to the Generalitat, the leader of Podemos has stated that "when a parliamentary group learns of a proposal through the media, the usual objective is not to negotiate, but rather to pressure."
She has recalled that the preamble of the last legislative initiative in this area presented an "openly racist" approach and has emphasized that, essentially, it aims to delegate to Catalonia the application of a "racist" norm, the Immigration Law, which supports the existence of CIE and racist raids. She has also warned that an excessive increase in the forces and bodies of state security in Catalonia represents a military-type control approach.
"If they want to negotiate, both Junts and the PSOE know what Podemos' proposal is, they know how that text can be reformed so that it is not racist, both in its preamble and in its articles. Of course, to make a delegation of competencies with a human rights approach that protects the rights of migrant people, Podemos will always be available," she summarized.
Finally, she has urged the Government to expedite the procedures for the extraordinary regularization of migrant people and to "fulfill what it committed to Podemos" in the implementation of this measure.