This Tuesday, the Malpartida de Cáceres City Council expressed its displeasure at the “misinformation and lack of coordination” of the Government of Spain regarding the arrival of 140 immigrants from the Canary Islands to the municipality “without prior notice and without any coverage being planned to respond to your needs”.
As explained by the mayor himself, Alfredo Aguilera, in a video that he uploaded to social networks, he found out about the arrival of this group on Monday afternoon through a WhatsApp group of neighbors, where it was said that they were going to stay in a local hotel: “I contacted the hotel manager and she confirmed that a reservation had been blocked for several months.”
Aguilera assures that he also contacted the subdelegate of the Government in Extremadura in Cáceres, who confirmed the arrival of these people to the town late at night. “The Government of Extremadura also knew absolutely nothing,” the mayor stressed, an issue that was also confirmed later, in a press conference, by the spokesperson for the regional administration, Victoria Bazaga, who added that they will also arrive in the city of Cáceres. another 40 immigrants. Another 200 arrived in Mérida last week after the express offer, so yes, made by the mayor of the Extremaduran capital, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna (PSOE).
Aguilera (former mayor of the PP but who ran as an independent in the last elections) has sent a message of calm to the neighbors, “who have demonstrated on numerous occasions” their solidarity and hospitality and that of all Malpartideños with people arriving from different countries and reaffirms that it will continue to open its doors and collaborate as much as possible with those who need it”, but at the same time it has complained about “the uncertainty” that has been created by the arrival of such a large number of people “to a small town of 4,100 inhabitants” in contrast and due to a matter of “disproportionality”, in his opinion, with the 40 who plan to stay in Cáceres (96,000 inhabitants).
For the municipal government team, a town with these characteristics “does not have the means or resources to care for them, taking into account that many of them have gone through very difficult situations that require health, social, psychological and other services that they “the population is not available or not able to meet this high demand.”
For this reason, it has urged the Spanish government to redistribute these people among several municipalities in order to respond to these needs in a coordinated manner, since although it has experience in welcoming people in similar situations “it is completely impossible to provide minimum quality coverage to such a large number of people with resources as limited as those of a small town. In any case, the Malpartida de Cáceres City Council has reiterated that it will do everything possible to welcome these people and respond to their needs.
For its part, the Government of Extremadura has asked the Government of Spain for “coordination” and has criticized the fact that it knew one day in advance that 180 new migrants would arrive in the region this Tuesday. Of them, 140 will go to Malpartida de Cáceres and another 40 to Cáceres.
The spokesperson for the Junta de Extremadura, Victoria Bazaga, has assured that the Junta learned in the “afternoon” of this Monday that 180 migrants would arrive in the region, at which time she considered “it is essential that humanitarian aid be managed well.” and “that there is capacity to do so.”
For this reason, he has stressed that the regional administration must provide migrants with the necessary coverage and, therefore, they cannot find out a few hours after their arrival.
“There has to be coordination,” said Bazaga, who has insisted that if this coordination between the Government and the Board does not occur, it is “impossible” to provide migrants “what they need.” “And this generates all these things, that there is a bit of concern,” she stressed.
