Balbino Martínez is the president of Sociedad Deportiva Monterroso, the football team of this small municipality of Lugo (3,600 inhabitants). But today he is addressing issues that transcend sport, as the club mobilizes to welcome the 120 migrants who have just arrived in the city after fleeing war and poverty in their home countries. Most come from Mali, a country that has been mired in conflict for more than a decade that has worsened in the last two years. Martínez explains that with the announcement of the transfer of this group of men, hoaxes began to circulate among the neighbors. And he thought it was necessary to react: “I spoke with the board of directors and we said: ‘We have to set an example here. We are going to issue a statement because, at the end of the day, all the families in the city have relations with SD Monterroso.’”
The text, published on their Instagram profile on Friday – the day the second part of the group of 120 migrants arrived – expresses the team’s willingness to collaborate and encourages neighbors to get involved as well. “We remind you that no one flees their home by choice, but rather to survive and improve their living conditions. “This is not about charity, but about opportunities,” says the official statement, signed by the team’s president. Data from the government delegation in Galicia confirm that most of them fled the war and arrived in the Canary Islands by cayuco. They are expected to stay in Monterroso for between two and four months, at the Río Ulla hotel.
The president of SD Monterroso sees the club as a unifying element that reaches all the residents because, in one way or another, all the families are in contact with it. The aim was to use this advantage “to raise awareness and, obviously, help”. He himself contacted the NGO Rescate, which accompanies these migrants in Monterroso, to ask how they could lend them a hand. In the statement, they ask for donations of clothing and foresee that migrants will have free access to all matches and that SD Monterroso will share municipal facilities for everything necessary and promote leisure activities.
Last weekend, they invited the migrants to watch a tournament – which the visiting team, Lalín, won – on the football field. A group of them came and Martínez says he had coffee and talked with them: “What they want is to work and learn Spanish. Their goal is to integrate, you can see them. They stressed that they didn’t want to have problems with anyone and that some people’s looks bothered them.”
The club president adds that they will also try to collect sports equipment in case any of these men also want to play football. The idea is to offer them leisure alternatives and also that it helps to normalize their presence in the city. All the members of the team support the position and several have volunteered to collaborate. Martínez points out that there are also neighbors in the city who have congratulated them for their initiative.
The NGO that supports these 120 migrants assures that there were no incidents during the reception and that, in fact, it noted that many neighbors offered their collaboration and even offered to teach their trade to the new arrivals. A welcome party is also organized in the coming days.
Criticism of local government
The attitude of the football team contrasts with that of the local government, led by Eloy Pérez (PP), who had declared in mid-August that he found it scandalous that the central government wanted to “impose” a situation that had been “generating social alarm” for days. The number of people is, according to him, “disproportionate” because it is equivalent to 10% of the inhabitants of the urban center. He asked for more clarity in the information and for the criteria to be clarified. The larger cities, such as Monforte de Lemos, have received a smaller number, he protested.
The criticisms are in line with those of the president of the Xunta and the PPdeG, Alfonso Rueda, who, although he spoke of “floods without criteria”, acknowledged that Galicia is not overwhelmed by the arrival of migrants. Complaints about the management of the central government have continued in recent weeks. The most recent is that among the 800 migrants who arrived in Galicia, there are 15 minors. The Minister of Social Policy, Fabiola García, has indicated that they will be included in the community protection system and that they will work with the Public Prosecutor’s Office to carry out age tests on them.
