Spain must continue to defend a migration policy with a positive and firm discourse. The focus on human rights and migration cannot be separated. Courageous policies are urgently needed, without discursive changes to stop the progression of hatred.
Once again, immigration has become the axis of political debate in our country. Once again, we have heard the same old mantras that the extreme right has managed to place in the hate ranking and that, unfortunately, the PP uses in its fight with Vox on its heels.
Wanting to take advantage of migration by making it the new leitmotif against the government, resorting to slogans such as “the call effect” and “mass deportations”, encouraging the campaign of fear with such dangerous binomials as migration and security – when objective data demonstrate the opposite – is not only inhumane, but deeply irresponsible.
They are the same ones who try to dehumanize and stigmatize those labeled as MENA, unaccompanied minors. In the Canary Islands, there are currently almost 6,000 boys and girls without family references, who cannot be accommodated with dignity and their rights guaranteed because the archipelago’s child protection system is overwhelmed. Children’s rights are not a matter of charity or solidarity, they are guaranteed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the Organic Law on the Protection of Minors and are mandatory. The Autonomous Communities that refuse distribution and reception are ignoring their legal obligations.
Great slogans and a journey to Africa with a changing story
The hackneyed discourse of “orderly and regular migration” is an empty proposition if it is not accompanied by alternative, well-articulated and realistic measures. It is about offering legal and safe routes, both temporary, as is the case of the circular migration programs announced by President Sánchez, and structural for people who cannot return to their country within a certain period of time.
Could a Malian or Sudanese who fled war in their country return in nine months thanks to the circular migration plan? Of course not. Therefore, these people will continue to choose to risk their lives in a canoe to stay safe.
It is not very coherent that a day after Sánchez announced the circular migration proposal in Mauritania, Spain began to impose a new airport transit visa on Mauritanian nationals, joining a long list of countries in conflict such as Mali, Somalia, Syria, Burkina Faso, Afghanistan or Palestine that are also required.
The more transit visas are required for nationalities from conflicts, the more people will have to throw themselves into the sea and put themselves in the hands of trafficking networks. We cannot forget that so far in 2024, 3 people have died or disappeared every day trying to reach the Canary Islands.
Let’s be clear: what really encourages irregular immigration is the inability to access a visa, to be eligible for resettlement, to reunite with family or to choose an alternative to paying a trafficker to get to Europe.
Nor is it very coherent that a day after drawing up a positive balance sheet of migrations, Sánchez himself embraced the discourse of deportations that the extreme right and the PP defend so much.
The rhetorical escalation on this issue, in addition to being false, represents an incitement to hatred, racism and the advance of the extreme right. In reality, it is more of a media discourse than a real and effective measure because it is not very applicable. On the one hand, because in many cases the principle of non-refoulement applies to those who need protection, and on the other hand, it requires bilateral agreements that are not always viable.
Countries such as Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom, which have proposed mass expulsions as a flagship measure, have acknowledged the difficulties of implementing them due to existing legal, bureaucratic and diplomatic obstacles.
Let us consider that the announcement of the expulsion of irregular immigrants transfers ‘a discouraging, clear, clear and hard-hitting message for the mafias and those who put themselves in their hands In Sánchez’s own words, this is demagogic and unrealistic. The only thing that can deactivate the mafias is the implementation of legal means that prevent their lucrative activities.
Therefore, proposing isolated proposals without a transversal and multidimensional package means making corrections and repeating failures already experienced.
Last week marked the 30th anniversary of the arrival of the first boat in the Canary Islands.
During these three decades we have faced multiple migration crises managed by different governments, both popular and socialist, and the same mistakes have continued to be made with responses focused mainly on border control and facing the phenomenon with specific measures and not with sufficiently dimensioned structural solutions.
Since then, thousands of people have disappeared during this increasingly busy and dangerous journey.
The last peak in arrivals has been visible since July 2023, with a significant increase, mainly by the Canary Islands route, with more than 24,000 arrivals in the first eight months of this year.
We cannot ignore the fact that these are mixed flows, that is to say that both migrants and people forced to flee, who are likely to benefit from international protection, arrive: refugees and asylum seekers.
For a good management of migration, the essential thing is to put on the table plans that address all its dimensions, with proposals that respond to the different existing realities, that of migrants, refugees, minors and women, forced to resort to the only real alternative on which they rely to be able to reach Europe: human trafficking networks.
In short, to defend the motto of “orderly and regular migration” a strategic plan is needed with different measures and sufficient resources, which put people at the center and do not get carried away by the electoral and partisan interests that they use. . this phenomenon to obtain electoral profitability; measures that make it easier for people who need it and those we need to arrive safely.
Because at this point, no one doubts that migration is a structural, inevitable and necessary phenomenon.
The Bank of Spain announced in April that our country would need around 25 million immigrants within 30 years to cope with aging and maintain its welfare state. We are talking about more than 800,000 people per year.
Because there is no doubt and we cannot ignore that societies that manage and welcome immigration face serious difficulties and challenges that require good management in the face of a complex phenomenon. But those who do not migrate face even more serious problems.
An uneven response
Given all this complexity, one must ask what difference there is between a Ukrainian refugee fleeing war and a Malian refugee who finds himself in the same situation, even more precarious and vulnerable if possible.
Why do we treat people differently?
In record time, Europe has welcomed almost 6 million people from Ukraine. In Spain specifically, we have welcomed around 200,000. Have the seals broken in Europe or in any of the Member States that, out of solidarity, opened their doors to these people? Have citizens seen their social welfare or rights threatened by the arrival of such a number of people?
The answer is clear: no. Quite the opposite. He made us proud by offering a strong response of welcome and integration to those who needed protection.
We thought that this successfully managed experiment illuminated the way forward. However, the Migration Pact approved by Europe at the end of the last legislature once again prioritises security control, using the failed strategy of externalising borders to prevent people from arriving.
In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of agreements between the EU and third countries where human rights are not respected, in an attempt to contain migratory flows. A strategy that is not new, which has proven ineffective and, moreover, puts the lives of thousands of people at risk.
These agreements involve paying countries millions of dollars to act as policemen, even if they do so through terrible strategies. Within this economic relationship, countries are demanding more and more, using the opening or relaxation of border controls as a pressure measure to obtain more advantages.
In 2024 alone, the EU delivered 500 million to Mauritania, 7.4 billion to Egypt and 1 billion to Lebanon.
These funds, in the hands of dictatorial or undemocratic governments, are short-term oriented and do not include monitoring and evaluation clauses to ensure progress reaches the population. They do not consider a development, human rights and democracy approach to address the real factors that push people to migrate.
The European Pact on Migration and Asylum is not a solution for managing migration, neither for people, who will suffer devastating consequences, nor for southern countries like Spain, which are under the greatest pressure from arrivals.
In the current European legislature, we have two years ahead of us to proceed with the implementation and try to minimise these risks, trying to reorient it so that the Pact defends access to the right to asylum, respect for human rights and the principle of solidarity and shared responsibility between the Member States as a fundamental pillar of the common European asylum system.
Our country has a lot to gain from this. We have just seen it in the results of Germany. Faced with moderate and timid speeches defending migration, the one that really wins is the extreme right by losing social cohesion and therefore citizenship.
Spain must continue to defend a migration policy with a positive and firm discourse. The emphasis on human rights and migration cannot be separated. It is urgent to adopt courageous policies, without discursive drifts, to stop the progression of hatred. Because hatred is fought by demonstrating the positive contributions that come from being a welcoming society.
