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A total of 360 sub-Saharan migrants have landed at Malaga airport this weekend. They came from the Canary Islands, where they had arrived among the latest wave of small boats. The islands are overwhelmed by the migratory pressure they are under, which has forced the Spanish government to carry out new transfers to mainland Spain, as it has been doing since the end of 2020.
According to what SUR has been able to confirm, the first group, consisting of 180 migrants, arrived in Malaga on Saturday 11 January, while the second group landed from Tenerife at two o'clock on Sunday.
From there, they were taken on four buses to the Oh Nice Caledonia hotel in Benahavís, where they will stay temporarily, until they are moved again. Their final destination is still unknown, but sources said that they will be distributed to different parts of the country.
The Spanish ministry of inclusion, social security and migration is in charge of the transfer and of assigning the NGO that will be taking care of them and their provisional accommodation in Malaga province. In the next couple of days, it is expected that the National Police will check the correct identification of all of them and, then, begin the transfer to the assigned Spanish provinces that will take them in.
However, the arrival of the migrants to mainland Spain has caught the Junta de Andalucía by surprise, after the national ministry failed to inform it of the transfer. Regional minister Antonio Sanz said, "We were not made aware," and appealed for better communication between different administrations.
They all have freedom of movement, although with an extradition order for having entered Spain irregularly. Not all of them will be deported immediately and each case will be investigated individually, to determine whether there are extradition agreements with their countries of origin. In fact, they have the option of requesting international protection, the right to reception or asylum in Spain, which, if granted, would halt the expulsion order. The interior and migration ministries are responsible for assessing the applications for international asylum. If they request it, they leave the Red Cross centres and are handed over to the Spanish Refugee Aid Commission (CEAR).
If after two years in Spanish territory, irregular migrants have not been deported or granted international protection or asylum, they can apply for residency based on the 'arraigo' system, provided they prove that they have been in the country for that period of time.
It is estimated that there are around half a million irregular migrants in Spain. Salvamento Marítimo, Spain's maritime rescue service, has said that 1,600 boats carrying migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands in 2024 alone.
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