Migrants who arrived by boat on Costa del Sol beach taken to Red Cross centres in Malaga and Algeciras

After passing through the port of Malaga’s centre for the temporary attention of foreigners (CATE), 29 men who arrived in Nerja on the eastern stretch of the Costa del Sol on Thursday 19 September were taken to Red Cross reception centres in Malaga city (18) and Algeciras (11) on Friday. Four minors have been placed under protection by the Junta de Andalucía.

Not all of the men will be automatically deported and each case is being looked at individually to determine whether there are extradition agreements with their countries of origin. In fact, they all have the option of requesting international protection, the right to reception or asylum in Spain, which, if granted, would paralyse the deportation orders. Spain’s interior ministry (home office) and migration ministry are also responsible for assessing applications for international asylum. If the men apply for asylum, they will leave the Red Cross centres and be taken care of by the Spanish Refugee Aid Commission (CEAR).

If after two years in Spanish territory the migrants have not been deported or granted international protection through asylum, they can apply for residency, so long as they can prove they have been in the country for this amount of time, as SUR has been able to confirm.

It is estimated that there are currently around 500,000 illegal migrants in Spain. In April this year Spain’s Congreso de Diputados (lower house in parliament) approved, with just political party Vox voting against it, to take into consideration the popular legislative initiative (ILP), supported by more than 600,000 signatures, to regularise around 500,000 migrants who have been in Spanish territory before 1 November 2021.

The arrival of this boat with thirty migrants in Nerja comes in a context in which the sociological research centre (CIS) stated a few days ago that migration is already the main social problem for Spaniards.

Malaga’s Red Cross provincial coordinator, Samuel Linares, told SUR that his work is “to attend to these people who come in a situation of extreme vulnerability, who have risked their lives at sea, to build a better life for themselves”. Since October 2023, the organisation has been managing reception programmes for migrants referred to the mainland from the Canary Islands at the Urban Beach hotel in El Morche, in Torrox.