Inclusion culmina la semana del Refugiado con un informe de balance sobre las acciones del Ministerio y el sistema de protección internacional español

The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has presented the Report of the International Protection System with which the Refugee Week ends, from which it follows that Spain guarantees international protection. More than 35,300 people are welcomed today in the various phases of the process.

During the week, among other activities, the conference “Reception systems in the face of current challenges” was held at the Reception Center Attention and Referral of Pozuelo de Alarcón, which was the first CREADE launched for the reception of the first people from Ukraine after the Russian invasion. In addition, Minister Elma Saiz has participated in the celebration of Refugee Day organized by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

Report of the International Protection System

The Ministry of Inclusion presents this Balance Report of the International Protection System with the intention of making better known the operation of the Spanish reception system and how it has been deployed to deal with the crises caused by the international situation. To date, there are more than 35,300 people welcomed among its evaluation and referral phases, reception and integration and autonomy.

The conflict in Syria in 2015, the arrival of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2021 (in which more than 3,000 people were brought on 21 flights, and today there are more than 1,000 Afghan people in International Protection), or recently the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has added 40,000 people to the Spanish reception system, have put the system to the test, but have also served to gather experiences and improve the management of these flows of arrivals.

A special mention deserves the management of the figure of Temporary Protection agreed within the European Union, which has allowed to protect more than 207,000 Ukrainians and Ukrainians in Spain.

In addition, as recalled in the Report, Spain has a resettlement commitment of up to 1,200 people per year, which for example in 2023 involved resettling people from Lebanon, Turkey and Costa Rica.

To cope with all this, in less than 10 years, the protection system as a whole has gone from 1,500 places (2015) to 19,000 (2024), and from 173 million euros in 2022 to more than 652 million euros in 2024 (within the model of concerted action).

In addition, Spain has a series of programmes within the framework of refugee persons that complement the international protection system itself: Family Welcome Program, Resettlement, Complementary Pathways for Integration in Employability, Community Sponsorship and Relocation; and two of them diversifying with different origins (Africa, Central and South America, East, etc. ).

Reception systems in the face of today’s challenges

Refugee Week began with the celebration of the conference “Reception systems in the face of current challenges” held at the CREADE in Pozuelo. They shared national and international experiences on the current situation of migratory flows and their impact on reception systems. The European Pact on Migration and Asylum and the challenges faced by national reception systems were also discussed. Minister Elma Saiz, who opened the meeting, announced in this context that the pilot project to expedite the processing of asylum applications that has been developed in Pozuelo will be extended to other centers.

The pilot project, launched in February, involves collaboration between the ministries of Interior and Inclusion, in line with the cooperation developed to speed up the processing of temporary protection. Thanks to this cooperation, the beneficiaries of the System who are in a situation of extreme vulnerability can access the procedure using the “fast track” system that has been launched in Pozuelo, a practice highly valued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since the start of this pilot project, 3,300 people have been assisted. A management model that is going to be exported to other centers that will begin to develop a comprehensive management, thanks to interministerial collaboration.

These days were attended by representatives of different Member States of the European Union, the Ministry of the Interior, as well as representatives of UNHCR, the European Commission and the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA). Likewise, there were representatives of the collaborating entities “without whose work we could not attend to so many people”; as Minister Elma Saiz thanked.  

Refugee Day with UNHCR

Minister Elma Saiz also opened the UNHCR event on the occasion of International Refugee Day, held in collaboration with the La Caixa Foundation.

Saiz highlighted the humanist approach that runs through the migration management of the Ministry - "this is how we are developing our policy and thus we have become referents in Europe and the United States," he said in reference to the European Union's Migration and Asylum Pact, and to the successful circular migration programs of Spain, in which the US collaborates and has been interested.

During the event, the testimony of four refugees was heard. Two of them, a Nicaraguan couple, are part of the Resettlement pilot project launched by the Government together with UNHCR and IOM. The couple arrived with a contract of employment in a renewable energy company and is already developing their life in Castilla y León. "We thank Spain for this second opportunity."

Also, a Ukrainian mother described her trip with her 13-year-old son, present in the room, "with a very small suitcase where I was going all my life and that of my son." Spain gave temporary protection to more than 200,000 Ukrainians after the Russian aggression, especially women and children, and now more than 40,000 have found in the Spanish reception system a place to regain strength and be able to consider a new life.

The event ended with a show by the Afghan rap and break dance group, Superiors Crew, made up of six young refugees who had to flee after the Taliban uprising. Among them was the first female break dance dancer, Manizha Talash, selected in the Refugee Olympic Team to participate in this summer’s Paris Olympics.

The minister applauded and thanked them for throwing all of them: "As the head of the Ministry that I have the honour to lead, I am aware that the new European landscape will require redoubling efforts to combat any initiative that in Brussels violates human rights, civil liberties and the fundamental democratic values of the EU, such as equality, justice and the protection of minorities," he said, and ended by calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and for peace.

The participants ended up painting a mural of Boa Mistura, the urban art activist collective that transforms public spaces to make them more habitable and more committed. Boa Mistura has also collaborated with the Ministry designing the institutional image of the European Presidency and of the high-level meetings through two lithographs reading "refuge" and "union".