Ayuso will allow the children of the Hortaleza shelter to sleep in smaller bedrooms

At the end of 2023, the Government of the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, gave permission to the manager of the Hortaleza minor reception center to not comply with the legal obligation that residents enjoy a minimum useful space of 5 .5 square meters per person in their bedrooms, according to documentation accessed by EL PAÍS.

The decision to grant this exemption to make official that the reception places increased from 52 to 72 subsequently validated the situation of overcrowding that always occurs in the center when the cold of the autumn and winter months arrives.

Because in October 2018, 338% of the occupancy capacity was reached, between 2017 and 2019 the average of 100% was exceeded throughout the year, and at the end of 2023 the institution was once again overflowing with children sleeping in bunk beds sandwiched between walls. , as they had done before on mattresses lying on the floor, or sitting on chairs in a room.

A Dantesque situation that only gets worse: those welcomed, Spaniards and foreigners, have to live with the damage caused by a fire that broke out on January 1, which has left part of a floor unusable, and 300,000 euros will be spent to fix it.

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Mattresses on the floor and dirty underwear: overcrowding again plagues the Hortaleza juvenile center in Madrid

“In the Community of Madrid, no one is looking out for these boys and girls,” laments Lorena Morales, PSOE deputy in the Madrid Assembly, about those welcomed.

“Now, the General Directorate of Innovation and Quality validates the overcrowding in Hortaleza, with bedrooms prepared for a single bed where they have put two bunk beds, and in which there is not a chair or a closet, because they do not fit,” she describes. .

"The center was for 35 places, and they moved it to 72, overcrowding it, turning this center into a powder keg, because to top things off they are overcrowding these 72 places, without the slightest hygiene, with a building under construction after a fire, with the children eating in three shifts and some sick,” he adds.

And she concludes: “Ayuso's spirit is expulsive, she offers these children conditions of misery so that they can continue on their way to other regions or countries and not have to invest a euro in them.”

This is how a government spokesperson justifies the changes: “The center has increased its capacity due to the increase in minors who have arrived referred by the Police from Barajas Airport and from other Spanish regions, given the current migration crisis, and the need to accommodate them” .

“The Department of Family, Youth and Social Affairs monitors the occupancy of the center daily,” he continues.

“Minors have adequate space,” he emphasizes.

“Occupancy fluctuates a lot and is currently around 50 places.”

"Fear".

"Stress".

"Screams".

“Toxic space.”

The words chosen by the workers at the Hortaleza minor reception center describe the tension that exists inside an overflowing facility, where all unaccompanied migrants who end up in the capital arrive.

In 2019, its capacity was expanded from 35 to 52 beds, which meant one more resident in each of the rooms, both for boys and girls, with 10 rooms for boys plus 7 for girls.

In 2023, 72 were officially authorized. But on many occasions, especially in the winter months, there are more children than beds.

This forces us to take turns eating, using the bathrooms, and almost sleeping.

Some statistics and limitations that are not innocuous.

A document prepared by the AMAS works council, the unions CSIT-UP, UGT, CC OO, SATSE and the workers of the Hortaleza center, warns that “overemployment that is beginning to have a permanent nature, is beginning to cause physical and psychological damage, both to the professional staff who care, and to the people served.”

Because the children live with police cars that patrol day and night around the center, which at the end of October 2019 was attacked by thirty people seeking revenge for an alleged robbery.

With demonstrations that year by neighbors in front of the doors of the facility to ask for its closure amid insults and threats.

With periodic visits from Vox politicians to incite fear against them.

With drugs.

With the mafias that capture minors waiting nearby.

With sexual abuse that caused 69 complaints from minors warded by Madrid alone between January 2022 and July 2023. Even with the throwing, never clarified, of a grenade into the center courtyard.

What has the Díaz Ayuso Government done about it?

Accept the request of the institution's manager to be exempt from the legal obligation that each resident have a space of 5.5 square meters in the room, without also setting any time limit for the exception.

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“Exceptionally, for reasons of social interest or in response to the unique conditions of the building, the body competent to grant the administrative authorization may exonerate on a reasoned basis from compliance with certain requirements established in the applicable regulations on social services, which do not directly affect the safety or health of their users,” reads the documentation of the General Directorate of Evaluation, Quality and Innovation of the Ministry of Family, Youth and Social Affairs.

“The need to increase the number of places in the center is sufficiently justified, excluding the requirement relating to the dimensions of the bedrooms, which with the reported expansion would be less than 5.5 square meters per user, without affecting safety or the health of minors,” he continues.

And for all this it is resolved to "grant exceptional administrative authorization (...) with the center being registered with a maximum capacity of 72 places, intended for autonomous users."

Thus, there are more and more children in the same space.

Or at least.

Because after the fire in January, the first reception center in Hortaleza is smaller than ever.

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