On the International Migrants Day, the Office of the Ombudsman deems that Europe should come up with a common and coordinated response to the refugee crisis. The Institution points out that the control of migratory flows and the need for the people who wish to enter Europe to do so legally and in an orderly manner should be compatible with respecting human rights and respecting the international obligations signed by each country.
The Institution has always been sensitive to the problems of refugees and migrants. Accordingly, in 2015 took several steps to watch over their rights.
Key moves
* After the new asylum office at Beni Enzar (Melilla) border post was opened, the Ombudsman and the Deputy Ombudsman visited the facilities that had been called for on numerous occasions by the Office of the Ombudsman and which, in its opinion, enhance the process of identifying people who need international protection, differentiating them from those trying to enter Spain illegally. They also visited the temporary stay centre for foreigners in that town.
* The Office has recommended that the number of staff assigned to processing requests for asylum be increased. This request has been complied with and the Government has already engaged the first people to bolster the asylum system.
* In 2015, the Ombudsman visited two of the four refugee reception centres (CARs in its acronym in Spanish) in Spain. She went to the facilities of the CAR in Alcobendas and to the one in Vallecas to find out about the integration and social intervention policies and the linguistic literacy and occupational training programmes that they run. She also asked for information about schooling for the under-age children that are in these centres.
* The Institution has supervised three repatriation flights. The Ombudsman supervised one of the operations until boarding had been completed.
* She also visited Algeciras Detention Centre for Foreign Nationals to find out about the situation of the inmates and the state of the facilities.
* The Institution has asked on many occasions for police protection in the detention centres to focus on the exterior of the facilities and for coordination of co-existence in the centre to be performed by staff specialised in social intervention. The Office of the Ombudsman welcomed the collaboration agreement signed by and between the Ministry of the Interior and the Red Cross to extend the social and humanitarian assistance that that organisation was providing in the Barcelona and Madrid centres to the Valencia, Murcia and Algeciras detention centres.
* The comprehensive plan for combatting the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation purposes (2015-2018) has taken into account recommendations in the report “The trafficking of human beings in Spain: indivisible victims” (2012). The prevention and detection of trafficking has been reinforced; the procedures for identifying, protecting and assisting the victims have been reviewed and work is underway on the specialisation of professionals dedicated to research and prosecution of these cases, as this Institution recommended.
* The Police Directorate General has also accepted a recommendation to share with foreign police authorities the details of under-age young people, possible victims of trafficking, in order to locate them and avoid situations of risk and exploitation which they may be in.
* The conditions of access to nationality of people with disability have improved thanks to a recommendation by the Institution, accepted by the Ministry of Justice, in which support resources and adjustments are fostered in order to adapt the content of the interviews held with these people.
* The identity cards of foreign nationals will not include the name of the re-grouping spouse in order to avoid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as requested by the Office of the Ombudsman. The Commissariat General for Foreign Nationals complied with the request of the Institution, and gave instructions for the identity cards of foreign nationals to include only the Foreign National Identity Card Number (NIE) or the National Identity Card (DNI) of the person with which he/she is connected by kinship, marriage or another sentimental relationship.
