The registry may be a responsibility of the town councils, but the European Comission will ask Spain about the case of Ripoll, in the hands of the ultra mayor Sílvia Orriols, and other Catalan municipalities and the obstacles, reported by EL PERIÓDICOwhich they are putting to migrant registration. “More information needs to be collected to have a better overview of the situation at play. The Commission will contact the Spanish authorities to gather more details,” the company explained to this newspaper this Friday. Home Affairs spokesperson of the European Commission, Anitta Hipperwhich recalls that to ensure that the directives on legal immigration are not undermined, governments must guarantee access for migrants to all relevant procedures and formalities, which applies to the “granting the necessary residence permits”.
The Community Executive recalls that governments must guarantee migrants’ access to the relevant procedures and services provided for by law.
The European Union In recent years, it has provided rules to harmonize the conditions of entry and residence in the Member States for certain categories of third-country nationals. This includes, explains the Interior spokesperson, the entry and residence for work reasons of highly qualified workers (subject to the EU Blue Card Directive), temporary workers and people transferred within the same company.
The rules also regulate the admission conditions and rights of students, researchers, volunteers and trainees from non-EU countries, the right to family reunification of third-country nationals legally residing in the EU and the conditions and procedures for third-country nationals to obtain an EU long-term residence permit. And they establish a single procedure and a single permit that combines authorization to work and reside for admitted third-country workers, according to the national systems of the Member States that must ensure equal treatment with respect to the nationals in the access, for example, to goods and services.
“To ensure the effectiveness of the legal immigration directives and avoid undermining their objectives, Member States must ensure access to relevant procedures. This applies to the granting of the residence permits necessary, as well as guarantee access to the rights provided in these directives,” added Hipper.
Although he did not want to get wet, for now, on the obstacles to registration in Cataloniathe spokesperson stressed that in any case European governments must apply European legislation respecting the rights included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
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For the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an intergovernmental organization based in Switzerland outside the EU, the problem that has arisen in Catalonia highlights the importance “of guaranteeing that all people, regardless of their background, have equal access to health care and education”explains the organization’s regional spokesperson, Ryan Schroederwhich states that it is essential to foster an environment that respects the rights of immigrants.
“While we understand the specific challenges faced by certain municipalities, we believe that a comprehensive, collaborative and rights-based approach is the best way forward for all involved,” he stressed.