A total of 400 beds in flats, pensions or decentralized shelters in different Catalan cities, which will have professionals from the Red Cross to provide psychological, legal and basic social care support. A) Yes the extraordinary circuit is being considered in Catalonia that it will have to attend to the Ukrainian refugees who arrive in Catalonia, according to what EL PERIÓDICO has learned. It is foreseen that go live in the next few weeks and it must put an end to the collapse and temporality that the more than 250 people who have already needed similar services are experiencing.
At the moment, there are 253 Ukrainians in Catalonia looking for a place to sleep. But the Government, the Central Government and the NGOs they intuit that in the coming weeks the arrivals will begin to be important, and more so considering that Catalonia is the community that concentrates the largest Ukrainian population in Spain. “We are working to put an end to the current situation, which is the result of the improvisation that we found on Thursday when the invasion began“, clarify sources from the ‘conselleria’ d’Igualtat i Feminismes.
delays
As soon as the conflict broke out, the Government opened four Generalitat hostels to accommodate tourists who had been trapped in Catalonia. They had to notify their case at the Ukrainian consulate in order to access these services. The arrival of refugees, the need to send humanitarian material and requests to reunite family members due to the war have brought the consulate to a point of collapse. Consequently, the places in the hostels are not full: there are 104 people housed. The remaining 149 people live in terrible waiting in hotel rooms or municipal hostels. Many others have chosen to go to the homes of relatives, or have asked for help from anonymous neighbors who have provided a bed.
“The problem is housing, we are all like crazy looking for spaces,” they explain from the Government, something that is also confirmed by NGOs specializing in reception and shelter. In Catalonia, the Ministry of Migration will expand this week 100 more first reception places, which will be managed by the Red Cross, probably, in a social care center in the Maresme region. In addition, the Government has reserved 500,000 euros for enable 300 more reception places in different facilities, with the Red Cross also in command. This service financed by the ‘Govern’ could start operating from next week. It is what is known as Phase 0, the first months in which the refugees request an appointment and are granted the right to request asylum.
personalized attention
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“We are thinking of pensions, centers or shelters… At the moment we do not opt for foster care in Catalan families because what these people now need is psychological care and have a team of interpreters and lawyers close by who will allow them to carry out all the necessary paperwork”, they add from the Generalitat. These places are for the first phase of reception, but the rest of the social entities are also looking for more resources, preparing for the months coming when the refugees go through the first and second phases of the reception system, which will also require extensions.”If we have to welcome the refugees with the places we have today, there is a problem… because they are all full,” summarized the responsible for a specialized NGO. To access these resources, when they have been opened, refugees must show the Ukrainian passport. And this is a service created expressly for this crisis. A free service has also been enabled in Ukrainian through the phone 012.
It is the first time that the Generalitat assumes, with its own funds, the first care of refugees directly and in addition to the Central Government. The powers in care of asylum seekers in Spain falls to the Ministry of Migration, despite the fact that more than 18 court rulings agree with the Generalitat. However, and despite the latest humanitarian crises, the ‘Govern’ had always requested the transfer of funds to open devices. Something that this time has turned around.