Friday, March 29

The plug in the asylum network collapses the reception of refugees in Barcelona


“We have come to ask for asylum but they have told us that we have to make an appointment on the Internet and wait to see what the European Union decides about our situation,” he explains. Ruslan Nadyuk, along with his wife and three children in front of the Barcelona Immigration Office. This family arrived in Barcelona last Tuesday, after embarking on a journey across Europe by car. Like them, more than 200 Ukrainian refugees are pending to apply for refugee status in Spain to start his new life here. Without this procedure, they cannot legally reside in the country, nor can they work or get a roof over their host network. NGOs and specialized lawyers ask to activate emergency resources and systems so that no one ends up on the street. The collapse of the network, mainly due to the lack of personnel, is chronic and for years has pushed dozens of refugees from all over the world to live on the streets or to be welcomed in municipal services for the homeless.

“What is war? Why do we have to go to another city?” they ask endlessly Daria, Emma and Mark, the sons of Ruslan Nadyuk. Have eight, four and three years and lived in Vinnitsa (Ukraine). This Wednesday they were running around Paseo Sant Joan in Barcelona and without thinking about it, they rushed into the first playground they saw after the outbreak of the war. “The bombs fell about 30 kilometers from home, where there is a military base,” explains the father, who speaks Spanish because he has alternated months of work in Barcelona and Madrid since 2003 to support his family. “Some friends who live near the bombings ended up in the basements because of the bombings. On Saturday we packed up and left. We did it for them, for the children. I don’t want them to live in a country in ruins, to be killed by a bomb… here they can have a better futuresays the father.

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Cross the border

Ruslan has the images of the border with Poland etched in his memory. “It’s very cold and You only see mothers crying inconsolably and husbands who have to stay in the country because they are not allowed to leave.“, he assumes. “Not even paying a fortune will they let you leave,” he adds. That is why decided to flee across the border with Moldova. “If you are a single father or have more than three minor children, they do let you go out,” says Ruslan. They had to wait more than 15 hours to cross. “It was full of people, everyone was desperate.”

Making the crossing took three days. Now they’re arrived in Montcada and Reixac and They stay in a room in a friend’s apartment. “It’s a small flat, we need another place,” says the father. She is aware of whether she takes her family to Portugal, where her sister lives, or to Madrid, where she has some acquaintances. “If they granted us asylum in Barcelona it would be better. We need to rest for a few days, what we have experienced is too strong,” he adds.

The Nadyuk family is just one of the hundreds that are arriving, and many will arrive in Catalonia. They warn him Mikhail Honcharenko and Stanislav Atanesovpartners of a law firm specializing in Russian-speaking wealth investmentswho are toasting free advice Ukrainians fleeing the country. “We have hundreds of calls every day asking for assistance,” says Atanesov. “The problem is that at the Barcelona Immigration Office there are only six people attending and they have been collapsed for months, they can’t cope“, assures Honcharenko.

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the other refugees

Without these applications, the refugees they cannot enter the state system that must provide them with accommodation, psychological care and linguistic support. She shows it on her face Ali Omar, a young Mauritanian who lived as a slave in his country. “I was sleeping on the street in Barcelona for two monthsnow I live in a shelter and it has taken me four months to have a first interview,” he says at the doors of the office while waiting for his lawyer. Jesus Madrid leaves your date overwhelmed. He has been denied asylum in Spain despite left Honduras threatened with death by drug trafficking networks. He refused to open a cover restaurant for drug lords. “I got a job here and my employer gave me accommodation. I just lost my work permit. Where am I going to live?” she wonders.

“In Barcelona the situation is especially critical, the refugees they wait up to six months to formalize their request and this prevents them from accessing the state reception plan”, explains Dilara Flota, responsible for advocacy at the Catalan Commission for Aid to Refugees (CCAR). NGOs specializing in this issue are already advising the Ukrainian community, and awaiting the orders issued by the European Commission in relation to the reception of Ukrainian refugees, who will most likely follow a special procedure. “Whatever happens, it will be necessary for the municipalities and autonomous communities activate urgent and extraordinary resources for these refugees who are already arriving and will increase”, adds Flota.

extraordinary resources

According to data from the Ukrainian consulate in Barcelona, There are already 210 people who need asylum in Catalonia. Some are sleeping in the houses of Spaniards or Ukrainians with whom they are related. At the same time, the Government has set up four shelters to welcome them. On Tuesday night there were 114 people, but this is a temporary measure. Same as the emergency reception provided by Barcelona City Councilwhich on Tuesday night welcomed 15 people from Ukraine.

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Related news

Some NGOs are pressing for the Ministry of Migration to expand the places in the state reception program. Sources from the Barcelona City Council also request “gestures” from the Generalitat. The Colau Town Hall invests more than three million euros to welcome refugees who are waiting to process their applications or have been denied, despite not being their competence. “Have willingness to open a contingency fund to cover all the needs where the funds of the State Plan do not arrive and with its own model”, they limit themselves to saying from the Department of Feminisms and Equality of the Govern.


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