Migrant reception centre near Malaga closes after two months

The reception centre for immigrants in Churriana is to close after being in operation for only two months. The centre run by the Spanish commission for refugee aid (CEAR) opened at the beginning of June in the former residence of La Asunción nuns in the El Olivar estate.

The centre, expected to cease its activity this week, was rejected by residents in El Olivar and the surrounding area before it opened. Locals sent several letters to the city hall and the national government to show their disagreement with the use of the building for this purpose, considering that neither the building nor the area met the conditions for accommodating these migrants.

However, their presence in this residential area has only been for two months, and everything is now ready for the transfer of the last twenty people in the centre.

These are migrants from African countries who arrived on the coast of the Canary Islands and who have been in Malaga on a temporary basis, until their application for international protection was resolved. CEAR explained that, as it is a temporary and emergency facility, it is "normal" that this type of reception centres do not last long, as the situation of many of these people is resolved in different circumstances.

Some of the migrants sheltered until now in Churriana have been transferred to a new centre that CEAR has opened in the area of La Chana, in the city of Granada, and others have left for other Spanish cities.

"This is a definitive closure of this centre," the organisation has remarked, although it has admitted that it is not ruled out that, after a few months, a new centre of this type may have to be opened in the province of Malaga if this social emergency situation derived from immigration continues.

For the time being, the Churriana centre is closing its doors, although all the furniture it was equipped with remains. This property was rented to the nuns of La Asunción by the company Student Rental Málaga, behind which is Alberto Benito, dean of the consular corps in Malaga and also director of the foundation of the Colegio Unamuno. When consulted by SUR, he said that for the moment "there is no prospect" of another use for this building.