History Of Foreigners’ Internment Centers In Spain

History of foreigners’ internment centers in Spain

At present, there are seven foreigners’ internment centers (CIE) throughout the national territory (Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Algeciras, Barcelona, Madrid, Murcia and Valencia) with a total capacity for just over 2.500 people and annual maintenance of about 9 million euros. In the Canary Islands, as is the case in the rest of Spain, the two CIEs that remain open (Tenerife and Gran Canaria) depend directly on the Ministry of Interior.

To the CIE, those people in an irregular situation are sent who are detected reaching the coast or intercepted in some public place for the forces of the order and lack legal stay in Spain. In addition, in the ICDs, those migrants who have a readmission order and those who have committed an administrative infraction sanctioned with expulsion are also internal, according to article 57.7 of the LOEX. Since 2010, complying with a reform of the Criminal Code, immigrants who have committed some crime that will be replaced by expulsion according to article 89 of the Criminal Code are also sent to the CIE. In the ICDs, irregular immigrants are retained for a maximum of 60 days while their files are resolved and their repatriations are proceeded. In case it is not possible.

The CIEs appear for the first time in Spain in 1985 through article 26.2 of the Organic Law of Foreigners. This same law, in its article 60, stipulated that the centers "will not be prison and will be equipped with social, legal, cultural and health services".

However, it would take almost twenty -five years to approve a law that would regulate the functioning of these centers, something that would be done through Organic Law 2/20009 which introduced a period of 6 months to regulate the CIE. The aforementioned the 2/2009 on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their integration was not only late but also did it together with a great controversy by incorporating in its text the 2008/11/EC of the European Union of January of January2007 that would be known as "the regulation of shame". This directive of the European Community, which would finally enter into force through Royal Decree 557/2011, included some controversial points such as the possibility of retaining immigrants in internment centers for a maximum of 18 months.

Despite the development of this legal framework, the CIEs would not regulate until March 15, 2014 through Royal Decree 162/2014 and under the Title Regulation of Operation and Internal Regime of foreigners’ internment centers.

As for Ceuta and Melilla, there are no CIE and migrant centers are called Temporary Stay Centers for Foreigners (CETI). These centers are managed by the Ministry of Labor through the Provincial Delegations of the Institute of Migration and Social Services (IMSERSO), although the Ministry of Interior can make decisions. The Ceti de Ceuta and Melilla, regulated by articles 264 and 266 of Royal Decree 557/2011, unlike the ICI welcome the immigrant collective in an open internment regime.

The 2008/115 Return Directive of the European Parliament set in 6 months, renewable for another 6 in exceptional cases, the maximum period in which a migrant could be retained in a CETI. Actually, some migrants reside up to four and five years in these centers without being considered an exceptional circumstance. Thus, there are records of cases such as a group of Indian citizens who resided in the Ceti de Ceuta for four years, or another case that involved a group of Bangladesi who were trapped in the Ceti de Melilla five years. This makes a difference with the CIE where the foreigner can only be retained for a maximum of 60 days.

Foreigner Internment Centers in the Canary Islands

The first clandestines that arrived in the Canary Islands were taken to an old disused airport. This center was replaced in 2003 by the largest CIE in Spain: the scrub. Meanwhile, some of the migrants remained in a ciem enabled in a hurry in Lanzarote. These two centers were overwhelmed numerous occasions at the beginning and mid -first decade of the new century, having the inmates to sleep in mattresses distributed by the ground.

As for the Island of Gran Canaria, in 1993 the former Provincial Prison of Las Palmas opened its doors as a headquarters of the National Police and included an area for the retention of foreigners in a situation of irregular residence. The Dry Barranco CIE, as it became known, had an initial +capacity for 84 people (capacity that expanded years later) and better services than those of the neighboring islands, including health personnel and translators.

During the nineties of the last century, the small number of arrivals of immigrants in an irregular situation to Gran Canaria got the center to remain virtually empty. But the thing began to change in early 2000, when hundreds of sub -Saharan immigrants arriving in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote were transferred to Barranco Seco. On the other hand, in Tenerife the CIE of Hoya Fría did not start operating until December 2003 when the other centers in the Eastern Islands no longer supplied the high number of arrivals of immigrants in an irregular situation. However, the implementation of this new CIE did not change things much and soon he was overwhelmed.

Clearly, the capacity of the CIE in the Canary Islands was already insufficient in 2004 before the "Cayucos crisis" began. Then, the Canary Islands had a total of 1.475 places: 168 in Barranco Seco (Gran Canaria), 238 in Hoya Fría (Tenerife) and 1.069 in El Matorral (Fuerteventura). However, between 2001 and 2003 only in El Matorral.739 people: 3.145 in 2001 (of them, 3.113 Africans), 7.381 in 2002 (7.348 Africans) and 7.213 in 2003 (6.932 Africans). And the worst was yet come.

The Canarian Ciez during the "Cayucos Crisis"

Foreigners’ internment centers were a somewhat unknown reality for much of the Canarian public opinion (especially in the westernmost islands) until the end of the 20th century. This perception changed with the so -called "Cayucos crisis", when the autonomous government was found in the dilemma of having to shelter and assistance to the hundreds of immigrants who reached their coasts almost daily.

In the spring and summer of 2006 the centers of Hoya Fría in Tenerife, Barranco Seco in Gran Canaria and the scrub in Fuerteventura were totally overwhelmed, having to enable military camps and provisional temporary stay centers even in the small islands that lackedCIE. This was the case of Camella in La Gomera, Valverde in El Hierro, the Americas and the roots in Tenerife, the guacimettes in Lanzarote and La Isleta in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Given this situation, the Government of Spain tried to patch the situation by distributing migrants among the different centers in the Peninsula. For example, in 2006 about 19.000 people, the vast majority men of sub -Saharan origin, were "distributed" from the Canary Islands via Peninsula.

According to the Official Gazette of the Cortes, only in September of that year 973 people from the Canary Islands to different CIE of the Peninsula were transferred. Exactly they were transferred, in a total of 18 flights, 185 immigrants to Malaga, 159 to Barcelona, 499 to Madrid, 55 to Valencia and 75 to Murcia. In April 2007, also according to the Official Gazette of the General Courts, 181 clandestine that entered through the Canary Islands had been sent to the CIE of Valencia, while the following month the number reached 214 people. But neither repatrices and neither group transfers of up to 200 immigrants.

The Canarian Ciez in recent years

As of 2007, Cayucos arrivals began to descend. By then they remained open in the Canary Islands Tres Cie: El Matorral, Barranco Sec.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross operated a keti, Udjama, in the capital of Gran Canaria with 154 squares and which had started operating in May 2000 to shelter the hundreds of irregular that were wandering through the streets of the city without power without power without powerbe repatriated.

In 2009, the numbers of arrivals of migrants in an irregular situation continued to plummet and that year a total of 2 arrived on the islands.246 Irregular Africans, while in 2011 they arrived in the Canary Islands from Africa 26 vessels with 340 clandestine on board. This descent in the numbers of clandestine arrivals to the coast of the Canary Islands made, in mid -2012, the CIE with the greatest capacity in Spain, the scrubland in Fuerteventura. At that time, in the thicket there were only 11 inmates in facilities with capacity for almost 1.100 people. Moreover, in all of the Canary Islands there were only 25 detainees in the three centers that were open: El Mugral, Barraco Seco and Hoya Fría. However, and just in case migratory flows to the Canary Islands are intensified again as is happening in recent months, money is still being invested in the maintenance of the scrub, exactly almost 4 million euros until 2016.

In 2015, the centers of Hoya Fría (Tenerife) and Barranco Seco (Gran Canaria) remained open (Gran Canaria). But that year the capacity of the Dry Barranco CIE was affected by its serious structural problems, adapting its operation to 80 people. However, this number of places was then more than enough considering that, at the end of 2015, the average inmates was 12 in Tenerife and 11 in Gran Canaria, with a total of 843 and 51 inmates through Gran Canariaand Tenerife, respectively.

The following year, in 2016, the Jesuit Service Association to Migrants published a report that assured that 633 people had spent that year through the CIE of Barranco Seco and 215 for that of Hoya Fría, the majority men. Taking into account that the total capacity of the CIE of Barranco Sec), there was the circumstance that the figures of residents that were in the centers at the same time was much lower both to the reception capacity of the centers and the number of professionals used there. This situation began to experience changes in 2019 when the rebound of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands became evident, partly due to the low number of places available in the CIE.

Finally, in February 2018 it was announced that Barranco Seco closed its doors temporarily to develop reform and conditioning works, providing only minimum services. These works had not yet ended at the end of 2019, giving the circumstance that several dozens of migrants who had arrived at the coast of Gran Canaria clandestinely had to sleep in the street, assisted by various NGOs such as Red Cross or Diocesan Cáritas.

At the beginning of 2018 the few inmates residing between the walls of the CIE de Barranco Sec. Thus, the numerous complaints that had accumulated over the years with reference to the bad conditioning of the rooms or the shortage of water in the center of Gran Canaria. However, other complaints, those related to the low presence of social or health personnel, must be solved in the future. As it was not surprising, during that period and until the end of 2019, due to the improvement works in the Center the Media Stay in Barranco Seco is the lowest in the entire country, with 13.79 days on average.eleven

When analyzing the number of migrants who pass through the Canarian Ciez. This is because in recent years intercepted people on the high seas are first taken to the CIE of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where they are counted and then be transferred to Hoya Fría in Tenerife. Therefore, the real figures of Barranco Sec.

Another fact to keep in mind is that the average residents in Barranco Seco between 2011 and 2016 was 460, while in Tenerife the average inmates were 123 people. This is about 38 people a month in Gran Canaria and about 10 people per month in Tenerife. As can be seen, these averages are well below the reception capacity of the centers.

As for the profile of the inmates in the CIE of the Canary Islands, and according to the memory of the Attorney General’s Office, in 2017 the dominant profile was that of a Moroccan man. In fact, more than 90 % of the 425 migrants who arrived on the Canary Coasts irregularly in 2017 were men. This male profile has always been the dominant. Thus, the memory of the 2010 State Attorney General’s.

Controversy with the Canary Islands

Complaints regarding the conditions of the facilities and rights of internal immigrants in the CIEs have not ceased with the descent in the number of arrivals. Finally, those complaints received an official answer when, on October 19, 2015 and in response to a car of the then control judge of the CIE de Barranco Seco, Victoria Rosell, the Ministry of Interior admitted that Barranco Seco did not cover the basic rightsthat they are supposed to be provided to all immigrant. The Interior Ministry also recognized that this resolution could be applied to the rest of the CIE of Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Murcia, Algeciras, Valencia and Tenerife.

The following year, in 2016, specifically in the month of March, the “Canary Islands Free of Cies” platform arose that brought together several NGOs, including doctors from the world, Cear in the Canary Islands and Caritas, and whose purpose was to raise awareness among the population andCanary Authorities to exert pressure on the Spanish State in order to transform the model of internment of foreigners that arrive irregularly. The pressure of the “Canary Islands Free Cies” platform has made the reality of the CIEs in the Canary Islands to the informative candlestick more often, but little more. At present, the CIE of Barranco Seco continues under minimums and its facilities are still subject to reforms, which has caused situations such as some migrants sleeping in the street without being able.

Migrant expulsions figures from CIE de Canarias

The impossibility of a positive identification, the absence of repatriation agreements with their countries of origin or waiting for the resolution of an asylum application, makes the repatriations of foreigners in an irregular situation not always be possible. And in just two months we must identify people, find out the country of each of them, contact the authorities of their respective countries, request repatriation and prepare the transfer. As a result, most undocumented.

Consequently, the percentage of expelled is well below what could be expected. Thus, in 2012 and 2013 around 47 % of foreigners interned in Spain with an order of expulsion under the arm were repatriated. It is also known that in 2015, 52 % of the 6 was expelled from Spain from Spain.930 hospitalized people. The following year, in 2016, the figures varied and 7.597 people admitted to a CIE in Spain (7.084 men and 513 women) were expelled at 6.305, which meant 82.99 %. Finally, in the year of 8.814 people admitted to a CIE to be expelled, were sent to their countries 3.041. This means 34.5 % of "success rate". In summary, the average expelled from 2011 to 2016 stood at just under 50 %.

When carrying out a small analysis of the figures of hospitalization and expulsions in recent years, it would be deduced that the CIEs are not fulfilling their function of interning illegal migrants until their repatriation and that they are not being very effective. And this leads us to think that, perhaps, we should seriously consider the development of another approach with respect to irregular immigration.

As for the Canaries Cie. Thus, the CIE of Barranco Sec. This is explained because, as mentioned above, in recent years most migrants with the order of expulsion of the CIE of Gran Canaria are sent to Tenerife. This fact would also help understand the difference in expulsions that were seen in the CIE Canarios in 2015 with 2.08% in Barranco Seco and 88.89% in Hoya Fría. However, in 2013 the difference between both CIE is very wide and by then the CIE of Barranco Seco was still operational and welcoming migrants. On the other hand, in 2016 there was a percentage of very low expulsions from the CIE of Hoya Fría (which was fully operational), which is very unusual in that center, which usually throws high indices of expulsions of expulsions.

Most of the expulsions represented in the previous table corresponded to men from Morocco and Algeria. Therefore, the profile of migrants expelled from the Cie Canarios is a male profile and dominated by people from the Maghreb, similar to the dominant profile in previous years.