Spain To Accept Over 17,000 Refugees And Process 20,000 Asylum Applications

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Following the Valletta Migration Summit, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said we must manage both the consequences of the migrant crisis and, “more importantly”, its underlying causes. Among the results of the summit, he highlighted the creation of a Trust Fund for Africa with a provision of 1.8 billion euros.

Rajoy pointed out that the goal of the Valletta Summit was to discuss the current migrant crisis, “one of the main challenges for our society”. As he explained, the European Union is a “community based on solidarity and shared values”, which include “dignity and people’s basic fundamental rights both within our borders and beyond”.

With this in mind, “extraordinary relocation and resettlement mechanisms” have been adopted to “accept and distribute 160,000 refugees among the Member States of the EU over the next two years”.

Spain strengthens national refugee intake system

Rajoy said that Spain will accept over 17,000 refugees and process close on 200,000 asylum applications. “The most important aspect of this operation is to show solidarity but also to do so effectively, in a coordinated fashion and with the ability to channel the admirable solidarity initiatives of Spanish society in an orderly manner”, he said.

Rajoy said that Spain is strengthening and redefining the national refugee intake and integration system, “both in terms of material and human resources”. The initial budget has also been increased “significantly”, while “50 Spanish civil servants specialized in migratory flow management” have been made available to FRONTEX and the European Asylum Support Office.

In this regard, Rajoy recalled that “an initial pilot project to relocate refugees from Italy” began last week, a project that “will help us effectively organize the intake of over 17,000 people in need of international protection”.

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