No one wants a shelter in their neighborhood.

They are accompanied by a security agent, responsible for conveying this uneasiness. Even if they remain unconscious. They walk through the enclosure in single file, disciplined, until they cross a fence and start playing in an open field with a tennis ball.

Its domain ends a little further. They are in the first reception center for unaccompanied migrant minors that the Community of Madrid launched a few days ago in Fuenlabrada (Madrid).

Rather in its municipal area, because the building is located on a hill overlooking the road that connects Madrid to Toledo, where some take their dogs to run freely through the meadows and where the closest buildings are those of the industrial zone of Cobo Calleja . A place known for being one of the industrial conglomerates the largest in Europe and for having been bought by Chinese companies.

The choice of this space has caused a lot of noise in recent months between the Community of Madrid, governed by the PP, and the Fuenlabrada City Hall, governed by the PSOE.

The management of centers for minors corresponds to the autonomous communities and the Administration led by Isabel Diaz Ayuso decided in May to reconvert the facility, which was the headquarters of aeronautical company EADS Casa -what’s happening today Airbus— and now it was disused, in a shelter to deal with the migration emergency.

Sources from Fuenlabrada City Hall tell this newspaper that the reasons for opposing the project are based on the fact that the Community has not previously communicated it; that the space transfer agreement included a reversion clause, whereby the council would have claimed the land with legal action; and above all that They do not agree with the “migration model” which represents the center.

“Housing these children in the middle of nowhere stigmatizes. They will not be able to go out or have contact with anyone, which is why we believe that they do not meet the basic conditions,” they explain from Fuenlabrada City Hall.

The center, in which the Community has invested nearly 19 million euros and whose management was proposed by public call for tenders to organizations that deal with these issues, will have a maximum capacity of around 100 minors and should have doctors, psychologists, teachers, social workers or educators.

“We must see the figure that Spanish socialism makes with Fuenlabrada in terms of welcoming minors, how progressive we are in advertising, how humane we are for the immigrant, but that they are far from my home“, responded to the controversy Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

Ciudad Real and the Meloni model

The arguments of the Fuenlabrada City Hall are almost identical to those of the Junta de Castile-La Manchaalso governed by the PSOE, when the government last week launched the balloon investigation that it was considering using the abandoned Ciudad Real airport to create an emergency center for migrants.

The president of this community, Emiliano García-Pagequickly declared that this decision would be “illegal” and used a report from its legal services, according to which airport facilities cannot be used for this purpose. This document argues that the infrastructure must be used for “industrial and tertiary activities” and that, therefore, it “has no place”. There is a reception center for immigrants.

From the Council, they add to EL ESPAÑOL that, “politically”, it is not their “model of crowding people into barracks in an airport in the countryside, 20 kilometers from any urban center.

That is to say a situation similar to that of Fuenlabrada. Although in the case of Ciudad Real it would be a center for adult migrants, supported by the State and not by the autonomous communities, the central government would therefore have the last word.

The Castile-La Mancha debate took place alongside the inauguration of a detention center for refugees that Italy has just opened in Albaniaoutside the EU.

The model has not achieved great results so far because, of the 16 migrants transferred by boat, none met the conditions to stay there. But the idea aroused the sympathy of a significant number of countries in the Union.

Several of them are willing to explore solutions of this type, while the Spanish government categorically refuses to follow the path of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. Following last week’s European Council summit, President Pedro Sanchez He said these non-European centers “do not solve any of the problems and create new ones.”

During this same meeting, held Thursday and Friday in Brussels, the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyenand the European People’s Group —to which the party belongs Alberto Nuñez Feijóo— They welcomed Meloni’s policies.

Even other social democratic governments, as Germany does with nuances, are committed to tighten immigration policy and continue to limit the number of irregular arrivals in Europe.

Sánchez, for his part, affirms that “Spain has a clear and consistent position with our values”. “It is a position based on humanity. Regulated and responsible migration is the response to the demographic challenge that Europe and Spain are facing,” he also expressed from Brussels.

But in the meantime, immigration already represents the first concern for the Spanishaccording to the latest CEI survey. And, real problem or alarmism, politics still does not provide a solution, even to the most immediate effects of this phenomenon.

Adult centers

According to data from the State Secretariat for Migration, requested by this newspaper, Spain currently offers protection to some 55,300 migrantsof which 49,000 people are accommodated in different types of centers.

These are fundamentally distinguished between those of emergency and first reception —where they enter upon their arrival on Spanish territory— and those who make up the asylum systemonce they have been derived based on their needs. Finally, there is a third type of accommodation for refugees who benefit from international protection and who are helped until they become fully independent.

In each of these categories, there are also different typologies of centers. Those intended for adults are open regime —i.e. migrants can enter and exit freely— and in most cases, they are managed by NGOs with extensive experience in this area, such as CEAR, Accem or the Red Cross.

The Director of CEAR Programs, Rachel Santosexplains by telephone that “the Government approved the immigration emergency in October last year due to the increase in arrivals on the Canary coasts” and that is when it was ordered to open other extraordinary reception centers, in different places such as hotels, religious residences or military installations.

One of them is the Primo de Rivera barracks, in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), where almost 1,000 people are housed and where many fights among migrants of different nationalities.

The Alcalá de Henares City Council, of the PP, also expressed its rejection of the alleged presence of minors in the center, the increase in its capacity and the extension of the duration of their stay.

Regarding facilities, the Association of Troops and Sailors (ATME) also reported last week in EL ESPAÑOL that neither barracks nor military personnel are trained to accommodate migrants.

“It is frustrating that there are no funds to maintain our barracks in good condition, but suddenly millions are found to adapt them into reception centers,” summarized the president of ATME , Marco Antonio Gomez.

CEAR says conditions for migrants in these centers are generally “adequate and meet minimum standards.” However, Raquel Santos believes that “the controversy is generated because immigration policy is very utilitarian“, when it should be concerned with “protecting people’s rights”.

Juvenile centers

Unaccompanied minors represent a much smaller number than the rest of the migrants housed in first reception centers in Spain, but they have unwittingly become the protagonists of an even fiercer partisan battle.

The communities take care of it and, although there are no unified figures, EL ESPAÑOL recently compiled data from different departments to conclude that in July of this year there were some 13,400 migrant minors widespread throughout the country.

Most are in Canary Islands (5,500), Catalonia (2.369) and Madrid (1,200). In the latter community, however, they specify that so far this year they have taken care of almost 2,000 minors.

The distribution from the Canary Islands, where most arrive by sea, to the peninsula has become one of the big political fights of recent months. First of all Vox broke self-governments which he shared with the PP, when the popular party agreed to negotiate the distribution of 347 minors in different communities. But three months later, that move hasn’t even happened.

The Juntas have rejected the distribution of minors in Catalonia, while the PSOE and the PP clash over the reform of the immigration law and keep negotiations on hold. The president of the Canaries, Fernando Clavijo, was already asking before the summer to unblock this mess. During his last appearance at Moncloa, he reproached the two majority parties.

“At the political level, the urgent and immediate solutions that are required have not been found, because it is not depoliticized this humanitarian emergency,” declares Sara Collantesmigration specialist at Unicef ​​​​Spain.

The organization considers that it is “essential that negotiations resume to adopt an effective, agile and supportive transfer system as quickly as possible”. “This system must be accompanied sufficient funding and government support central for the Canary Islands and for the rest of the autonomous communities”, they add.

But the distribution continues without taking place and the reception of migrants continues to fuel political protests. Spain does not want to be like Italy, but we do not know very well how to resolve on its territory the migration management that the Meloni government and other European partners intend to transfer beyond its borders.