A change to Spain’s immigration law has been defeated in the Congress of Deputies in another sign of the weakness of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’ current government.
With the number of migrant arrivals on Spanish shores growing exponentially this year and reception centers overflowing, particularly in the Canary Islands, the government had proposed a change to the law that would make the redistribution of unaccompanied minors to different regions of Spain obligatory rather than voluntary, as it currently stands.
The regional government of the Canary Islands has been calling for such measures to alleviate the situation in the centers for unaccompanied migrant minors. Earlier in the month, the government negotiated the distribution of approximately 400 migrant minors from centers on the Canary Islands to centers throughout mainland Spain with the presidents of the regional governments. The agreement caused the right-wing party VOX to withdraw from coalition governments it had formed with the center-right Partido Popular (PP) in five regions. The PP held the presidencies of all of these governments with VOX being the junior partner.
However, to alleviate pressure on the centers in the Canary Islands—where some 6,000 unaccompanied minors are cared for in group homes, with the number growing every day—thousands of youth would have to be moved to other parts of Spain.
VOX has stood staunchly against the redistribution of any migrants, whether minors or adults, from arrival points to centers in the interior of the country, saying it would have a “knock-on effect” that will only increase migration toward Spain. The PP, however, was willing to support the measure under certain conditions. After a week of negotiations it had reduced those requirements to four: the immediate gathering of a conference of regional presidents to discuss the immigration issue; the declaration of an immigration emergency at the national level; the commitment to finance the reception of unaccompanied immigrant minors until the age of 18 instead of only during the first year; and the guarantee of greater long-term regional financing.
The socialist-led government refused, insisting that regional governments had already been accommodated. They then let the bill go to a vote and fail, even though both the PP and the Catalan separatist party Junts per Catalunya had both offered to keep negotiating if the government allowed them more time. Analysts believe the government’s tactic was meant to characterize the PP as part of the supposedly xenophobic ‘far right.’
The government had also been negotiating with Junts per Catalunya, which had maintained one immovable requirement to approve the legal change, namely, that the bill include a measure giving the region total competency in immigration matters. This concession would have fallen neatly in line with the party’s secessionist aspirations. Catalonia is also one of the regions of Spain with the highest rates of reception of immigrants, and immigration was an important issue in regional elections held in May.
El Español reports that in the face of this latest legislative failure, the government plans to use another well-known tactic. It will likely put the measure through a royal decree, a type of law that, once approved by the cabinet, goes into effect immediately even while it completes the rest of the legislative process and goes to vote in parliament. This would give the government a window in which to force the redistribution of unaccompanied minor migrants from the Canary Islands to other parts of Spain.
In the same parliamentary session, Junts per Catalunya, which supported the formation of the current government in return for privileges for independentists, also refused to support other measures put forward by Sánchez’ executive, including a raising of the country’s debt ceiling.
So far, Sánchez has not been able to pass any major piece of legislation proposed by his government, except for an amnesty bill for Catalan separatists designed to benefit primarily the leader of Junts per Catalunya, Carles Puigdemont, a former MEP and fugitive from Spanish justice living in Belgium.
