The government of Pedro Sánchez is financing with half a million euros the work to prepare “two temporary reception centers for migrants (CATE) in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou in Mauritania, while directly rejecting the Italian Prime Minister’s proposal, Giorgia Melonito create spaces for the return of irregulars to countries outside the European Union.
Concretely, through the International and Ibero-American Foundation for the Administration of Public Policies (FIIAPP), a public institution dependent on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, awarded the Sánchez executive in May. 521,803.01 euros to the civil engineering company CADG Engineering Mauritania SARL for the rehabilitation of two temporary care centers for a total of 118 people (45 in Nouadhibou and 73 in Nouakchott).
In conversation with OKDIARIO, FIIAPP explains that these spaces will act like the Spanish CATEs (temporary care centers), where the “homeless” will be taken care of for a certain time. “maximum of 72 hours”. These immigrants will seek asylum or special protection (in the case of women and children) at the Mauritanian authorities and it will be this African country, place of origin and transit, which will adopt the appropriate decision, without any transfer to Spain.
Likewise, authorized sources of the FIIAPP emphasize that these CATEs will in no case function like the detention centers proposed by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and that the European Union is studying, where there is a return from the country of destination to the country of origin. At the same time, the association’s sources also emphasize that these actions in Nouadhibou and Nouakchott are part of a cooperation project four-year program (which should end at the end of the year) funded 4.5 million euros by the African Emergency Trust Fund.
The work of the two CATEs provides for separate bedrooms for men and women, kitchens and dining rooms, hygiene and sports areas and meeting spaces. The centers will be equipped with “facilities for conducting personal interviews in confidential and secure conditions in order to correctly process requests for international protection” indicates the FIIAPP.
Both were designed to meet European Union standards for welcoming immigrants and requirements for recognition of international protection, the government says, adding that plans for the facilities were developed with the participation of UNHCR, IOM and Mauritanian institutions. “Until now, there were no places for this type of migration management in the country”, affirms the Executive.
Thus, despite the intervention of structures such as Red Cross or UNHCRHowever, “they do not have adequate infrastructure dedicated to the care of irregular migrants”, says Foreign Affairs about this project, which aims to “contribute to the effective fight against irregular migrants”. “. against migrant smuggling and human trafficking and improve capacity to manage irregular immigration through support for Mauritanian security forces“in particular, strengthen the police and judicial investigation capacities of the DGSN against criminal networks linked to migrant smuggling, as well as improve the structural and operational capacities of the irregular immigration management system of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania “, we can read in the specifications. of the procurement file, consulted by OKDIARIO.
They didn’t exist
During the “identification phase” of the project, according to FIIAPP, it was identified with the Mauritanian authorities that one of the country’s needs, to improve its migration management, was to have temporary reception centers for these irregulars.
“When they are intercepted on the Mauritanian coast, the The police have no reception centers which allow them to carry out their work of collecting information on illegal migrant smuggling networks, as well as allowing these people to temporarily stay in decent conditions with access to “urgent Care”indicate the specifications for the rehabilitation of these two CATE.
In Nouadhibou, the country’s second city, the center is located in a old school which is no longer suitable for accommodating people. While in Nouakchott, the capital, where an infrastructure of these characteristics has never existed, a former police station located in the commune of El Mina (Wilaya of Nouakchott-Sud) which, once rehabilitated, will allow the opening of a CATE as well as the offices of the Central Office for the Repression of Migrant Smuggling and Human Trafficking (OCRTMTEH) in a common space . The intention is that the two centers in Mauritania can be operational in the coming months.
