Carmen Fúnez and Enrique Belda, deputies for Ciudad Real, have spoken publicly, in the past year of the Legislature, about the need to treat the migrant population from a perspective of dignity and with scrupulous respect for Spain’s international commitments on the matter. , which constitute immediately applicable law for our country. With their parliamentary group they have periodically requested information about the central government’s plans to solve the arrival of illegal immigrants and the conditions under which the areas of the national territory most stressed by reception must be helped.
On October 14, 2024, the Government of Castilla-La Mancha denounces that the Government of Spain intends to transfer an undetermined number of immigrants to the Ciudad Real airport to install them in barracks. The Spanish government admits that it is a place that it is studying and in the infrastructure environment, information is raised about extraordinary movements within the premises, visits by security companies, representatives of a public company, banking procedures, etc.
In this regard, Fúnez and Belda, the only reliable information they have received about a possible collaboration of the Ciudad Real constituency in the aid plans for the communities most affected by the massive arrival of migrants is from September 24 of this year. Thus, in response to questions from the Popular Party from much earlier, on June 25, 2024, about the plans to implement an installation like the one that the media promotes at the Ciudad Real airport and the degree of knowledge about it From other administrations, the Government responded last month: “(…) the following is reported: Regarding the installation of new temporary centers, the forecast is to open fourteen new centers between the peninsula and the Canary Islands. It is expected that the opening of the new temporary stay centers, complying with the deadline for the works to be completed, will be before July 1, 2026. The decision has been made with the consent of the affected administrations. Madrid, September 23, 2024.”
Thus, regardless of whether the president of Castilla-La Mancha tears his clothes over the possible installation of one of these centers at the aforementioned airport (on October 15, 2024, in the debate on the state of Castilla-La Mancha, after leaking the news the day before and thus taking advantage of a key argument in his power struggle – internal, party – with the President of the Government of Spain), it is proven that the regional administration knew about the matter at least a month before of what they affirm in the media due to the ministerial communication that we have transcribed. Otherwise, Congress would have been lied to.
Aside from the well-known tricks of national and regional socialist politicians, the truth is that we find ourselves with a two-pronged problem. The first, the most important, is the risk of inhuman and degrading treatment that is intended to be offered to people destined to be housed in barracks and temporary facilities located in an airport infrastructure that, to further endanger the regime of personal guarantees, is owned by some individuals and will not receive the benefit of surveillance and responsibility typical of publicly owned spaces. The second aspect is of a socioeconomic nature, since this disastrous measure is applied to a geographical area whose job promotion and whose growth prospects depend on reversing the dynamics of abandonment of this megastructure, whose use for these purposes not only delays, but which condemns a future of successful exploitation in the short and medium term within the purposes for which it was promoted and executed (with notable public collaboration at different times in its development process).
From the moment the news leaked, the deputy for Ciudad Real, in contact with her parliamentary group, with the president of the provincial council, the mayors of Ciudad Real and Puertollano and public officials in the area, to whom it corresponded the complaint of the case from the first minute of the temporarily interested placement of the news (Monday, October 14, 2024), they focused more than on the fact of the complaint and on whether the airport is finally decided as a destination, on working to document legally the incompatibility of the facilities with the accommodation of people.
In the following forty-eight hours, parliamentary initiatives in this regard were promoted. The most notable are those channeled by regulation to request data: “Date of possible opening of the facilities, number of places or total capacity that the new center would house (differentiating between those places intended for adult migrants and minors), approximate cost to carry the opening of the center, approximate cost of providing the center’s services, breaking down the forecast of fixed and variable expenses and the characteristics of the center’s facilities and its residential resources. Or those that are intended to require absolutely key documents: “Studies and analysis of suitability on the aforementioned project, communications on the details of the possible opening of a CEAD in the facilities of the Ciudad Real airport between the ministries and general directorates involved with the corresponding autonomous and local administrations, communication on the consent of the affected administrations, document sent from the Secretary of State for Migration to the Department of Social Welfare of the Autonomous Government of Castilla-La Mancha on the current situation of the project, the opening procedure and requirement for authorizations, study on the humanitarian conditions for the care of immigrants, licenses granted by the city council to carry out the works or earthworks considered and, where appropriate, the document that accredits the urban planning approval of the project, and finally agreement between the Government of Spain and the company that owns the airport, CRIA, for the use of its facilities.” All of this must be submitted to the Ministries of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, and to the Ministry of the Interior.
Added to this was the registration of the following generic questions to the Executive of Pedro Sánchez: Is the Government considering the transfer of irregular migrants to the Ciudad Real airport? Does the Government understand that a private airport infrastructure is an ideal place to set up a migrant camp? Is there any public company dependent on SEPI or with majority state capital, collaborating in the project aimed at establishing a center for illegal immigrants at the Ciudad Real airport? Can the Government provide the date, exact or approximate, on which they communicate to the Community Board of Castilla-La Mancha the project to transfer migrants to the Ciudad Real airport?
We want to conclude this statement by recognizing the work of people and organizations concerned about human rights in disseminating these projects in order to denounce them, and thereby generate in public opinion the necessary atmosphere of rejection, which is absolutely necessary when the current rulers They are accustomed to managing fait accompli without responding to parliament or addressing the powers of the territorial entities.