Spain is exploring the possibility of using its civilian airports as emergency migrant reception centers as European Union leaders discuss handling irregular arrivals.
advertisementThe Spanish government is considering setting up an emergency reception center for migrants at Ciudad Real airport, south of Madrid.
According to Pilar Alegria, Spain’s Minister of Education and Science, politicians are exploring “hundreds” of places.
Ciudad Real, a civilian airport, serves as a potential location to provide temporary care to people arriving on the Spanish coast.
The airport consists of a 24,000 m² terminal building and a 4,000 m long runway. It opened in 2008 and has hosted commercial flights intermittently since declaring bankruptcy four years later.
Emiliano Garcia-Page, president of Castilla-La Mancha, the Spanish municipality where the airport is located, said he had no knowledge of the proposal.
Ciudad Real Mayor Francisco Cañizar described the proposal as a “concentration camp” and argued it would fail to provide the “minimum humanitarian conditions” needed to house the arrivals.
About 43,000 people arrived in Spain last year, about 70% of them in the Canary Islands, which are most affected by Spain’s migrant influx, according to UN Refugee Agency data.
The news comes as immigration takes center stage at a high-level summit in Brussels this week. There, EU leaders will discuss the bloc’s approach to managing irregular migration in the future.
These discussions are expected to be controversial in the following countries: Netherlands and Poland Expressed a desire to limit the arrival of certain immigrants.
The announcement coincides with the opening of the Overseas Migration Processing Centre. AlbaniaProcessing of the first group of migrants rescued at sea by an Italian ship has begun.
