Alyssa Mcmurtry
19 June 2023•Update: 20 June 2023
OVIEDO, Spain
Between 70,000 and 80,000 people trying to claim asylum in Spain were unable to get appointments in 2022, the head of Spanish refugee commission CEAR said on Monday.
“It takes an average of six months to get a first appointment to access the process of requesting asylum … but it varies a lot from region to region,” said Estrella Galan, presenting the NGO’s annual report.
Helena Munoz, CEAR's legal coordinator, said that this prolonged waiting period traps potential refugees in legal limbo, denying them access to healthcare, education, and social assistance, and exposing them to potential deportation.
Munoz argued that this situation violates European law, which stipulates that anyone wishing to seek asylum should be able to do so within three to six days.
Even with so many people unable to make requests, after Germany and France, Spain received the third-most asylum claims in the EU in 2022, according to the CEAR report.
Meanwhile, Spain lagged considerably behind the EU average in terms of successful resolutions. Of the nearly 87,000 claims, just 8% were granted full refugee status and 8.5% were offered subsidiary protection. Combined, this makes just 16.5% favorable resolutions, compared to the EU average of 38.5%.
However, the demographics of asylum seekers in Spain significantly differ from those in many other EU countries. The top five countries of origin in 2022 were Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Morocco, and Honduras.
In addition to critiquing the "serious obstacles" faced in securing an appointment and the "restrictive criteria" used by authorities to grant asylum, CEAR also criticized Spain for illegal pushbacks.
In last year’s most alarming incident, when hundreds stormed the Melilla border fence, Spain’s ombudsman found 470 cases of illegal pushbacks. Besides that, at least 37 people died in the violent border confrontation, according to CEAR.
Conversely, Spain expedited access for Ukrainian refugees and currently ranks as the fifth EU country with the most Ukrainians displaced by war.
While CEAR commended Spain's handling of Ukrainian refugees, it urged authorities to also consider the plight of those fleeing from other conflict-ridden regions.
"You can't warmly welcome one group and then violently shut the doors on others who are escaping forgotten conflicts. Most victims in the Melilla tragedy were fleeing from conflict-ridden countries like Sudan," said Galan.
