Applicants for international protection denounce that they find themselves without the right to be so, as Spain has failed to fulfil its obligation to protect them by not facilitating access to the application for such protection. For this reason, on 13 December, they will register their complaints at the Ombudsman’s Office at 11am, before gathering in front of the Ministry of its interior at 12.30pm, where they will denounce this violation of their rights.

Problems

Applying for international protection (asylum) should be as simple as being able to say so, initiating a process that leads to the study of the application and, when necessary, to the application of protection, reception and accompaniment measures specific to the person or family. In Spain, since the pandemic, there has been an online appointment system in place, but for months now there has been no possibility of ever obtaining an appointment. To get an appointment, many people go online for hours on end, for days, weeks and even months, without succeeding. Others, with more resources, or going into debt, are able to pay private people to “get them an appointment”, which may be at a great distance from where the person is. The lack of accessibility to appointments is fuelling the black market and corruption.
Once the appointment is made, it is carried out in police stations, by National Police personnel, sometimes even obliging the provision of a census certificate, when this is not obligatory for a person seeking asylum. Police personnel are not necessarily the best people to deal with people who may have had difficulties with the security forces of their own or other states, sometimes inducing fear or a feeling of being interrogated, as if they were guilty.

Consequences

Not being able to apply for international protection leaves a person in an ambit of vulnerability and impunity which, in addition to being a threat to human rights, affects the future of the person who intends to apply for such protection.

Firstly, the person is left unprotected: they remain in a situation of administrative irregularity, without papers, with the risk and the vital difficulty that this entails. Moreover, as we have not given him the opportunity to say what risk he is running in his own country, he is someone who could be deported to that country, when that is precisely where he has tried to flee from. Of course, this is someone without access to a specific care programme for persons seeking and benefiting from international protection, ranging from free professional legal support, to a transitional shelter programme, psychological support or psychosocial accompaniment for a new life in a different country, culture and/or language. Such a person will also not be able to access the health system, or will be billed for their care, when they should have the right to it. The situation is aggravated because many of them come with traumas and after-effects, or with neglected or worsened processes as a result of the hardships of the flight, the journey, the process or even their stay in Spain.

Among those of us who write this, there are those who have exhausted our resources; those who live renting a bed, a piece of a living room, a sofa; those who have exposed ourselves to dangerous situations because we have not had enough money to have a protected place; those who are homeless and have needed to be sheltered in houses, in parishes or in homeless shelters, when there was space (there is not always). The unnecessary suffering this causes is not only a moral issue, but an illegality on the part of a state such as Spain, which has set itself the obligation in its legislation to protect people who need to apply for international protection.

What we ask for

– More appointments. Those necessary to comply with the minimum standards of human rights protection that the Spanish state says it safeguards.
– That the procedure be transparent: how many appointments there are, where, on what dates new appointments are issued.
– That resources be provided for this, not in the form of more police, but of specific personnel specialised in asylum, with a more psychosocial and legal profile, with adequate support from professional interpreters capable of conveying the person’s story. We need dignified and humane treatment.
– Information and protocols on the process of summons and interview, which avoid the possibility of corruption, arbitrariness or abuse of superiority. That this can be reflected in solid legal supports, which allow the right to be effective (for example, drafting a regulation that develops the 2009 Asylum Law).
– That there should be no differential treatment for different origins. Let the example of Ukraine serve to show that the Spanish state, if it wants to, can put in place the necessary resources. We all have the same rights.

WITHOUT APPOINTMENTS, THERE ARE NO RIGHTS.
No more lives on hold. No more unprotected people.
ASYLUM APPOINTMENTS NOW!

Places of convocation:
– 11h, register of complaints at the Ombudsman (Calle Zurbano, 42).
– 12.30h, rally in front of the Ministry of its interior (Paseo de la Castellana, 5).

Organised by: Assembly “No appointments, no rights”.