Wanting to close the CIE to claim its management: the change of direction of together in immigration | News from Catalonia
He Foreigner Internment Center (CIE) of the Free Zone of Barcelona illustrates the change of course in the migratory policies of Junts per Catalunyawhich has gone from denying these facilities to claim their management. If the agreement between the PSOE and the formation of Carles Puigdemont To delegate Immigration competencies to Catalonia Go ahead, the Generalitat will have control of the CIE, after a decade when the majority of the Catalan political class (also together) has repeatedly demanded its closure. He Expresident He maintains that it is an opportunity to transform it into something better, but activists regret that the covenant ends the historical consensus around its closure.
The Delegation of Competencies in Immigrationrequirement of Junts to the Government of Pedro Sánchez, plans to assign to the Generalitat the « comprehensive management » of the CIEincluding the « address, coordination and inspection » of the facilities. The text, which must be approved by Congress, contemplates that the Catalan government can “designate public employees” to perform that task – now is in the hands of agents of the National Police Corps – manage “the health, social, legal, culture and linguistic assistance services to the inmates and set control and inspection mechanisms.
The proposition of the law, the experts consulted coincide, gives a certain margin of maneuver to the Generalitat to implement changes and introduce improvements. And to that possibility Puigdemont is accepted to justify the transfer. “The situation of the ICD is not to be proud. If Catalonia assumes the management, it must be noted (…) a general rethinking will have to President He is the socialist Salvador Illa And it will be its executive who, if the agreement goes ahead, set criteria for the operation of the CIE.
But what the Generalitat will not be able to do is close the center of the free zone, but manage it, and also do so following state regulations (the Foreigner law). Abandoning that possibility is a point and apart in a transverse claim that started in July 2015, when 108 of the 135 deputies of the Parliament (Those of PSC, initiative, the CUP, Esquerra and CiU, predecessor of Junts) approved a motion to demand the government of Mariano Rajoy His closure. After listening to a work commission, the deputies confirmed violations of the rights of the inmates, locked in something very similar to a prison, in some cases for 60 days, by an administrative infraction: to be in an irregular situation in Spain.
“A very wide consensus was achieved in the Parliament so that it would not have been. Now, although the management is its own, that historical approach to Catalonia is not being respected to manage the expulsion processes without resorting to the centers, ”laments Andrés G. Berrio, autonomic deputy of the commons. Berrio was the promoter and one of the most active voices of The platform Tanquem Els Ciesthat in June 2015, to heat engines before the vote of the Parliament, he congregated a thousand people in front of the facilitiesan achievement because it is an inhospitable place and difficult to access. In that protest he also participated Ada Colaunewly chosen mayor of Barcelona, who requested « a city free of Cie ».
What they did not achieve social mobilization or political groups achieved it (temporarily) COVID, which forced the provisional closure of the center of the free zone. In February 2021, after the Ministry of Interior reopened it, Laura Borràsthen Junts leader, recorded a video in front of the facilities in which the motto of the activists of Tanquem Els Cie. Borràs denounced that the space « violates human rights » and is a sample of « false progressivism » of the Sánchez government. Although criticism of the CIE continues, in these four years the speech of the immigration party has turned. Pressured by Catalan Aliança —The independence ultra -right party that threatens to snatch part of the electorate, « Junts has turned towards a more hard hand speech in immigration control.
« It is an ineffective system »
Silent focus of conflict due to the isolation of the inmates, the Drama of the CIE of Barcelona went to the surface in January 2012, with The death of Idrissa Diallo infarction21 -year -old Guinean. The Ombudsman found serious deficiencies In health care to inmates. It was the beginning of a popular mobilization that led to implementation (health and legal assistance, appointment of control judges). The inmates, however, remain in a situation of detainees waiting for an expulsion that, in addition, in very few cases it ends up.
« The CIEs were created To enforce the foreigner lawbut in practice they barely serve expulsions. They are totally ineffective, they end up being more dissuasive than anything else, ”explains David Querol, vocal of the Aliens Commission of the General Council of Spanish Advocacy (CGAE) and professor at the University of Barcelona. Querol agrees that the proposal allows the Generalitat to implement « changes » in management, but without leaving the lane of the state norm and without the possibility of closing it. “It is a bit contradictory that, after years proclaiming that the CIEs were going to be closed, now they become managed By a delegation of competencies”, He says.
