Like every morning for five months, Harouna Conte, a 22-year-old Guinean, has called 91 322 01 89 in the hope that, finally, his future can begin to become clearer.
The response has been the same as always: no one answers the phone.
Hearing a voice on the other end of the line is his only option to be given the necessary appointment to start his asylum request procedure.
His case is that of hundreds of people throughout Spain.
This Tuesday, more than a hundred affected people and twenty NGOs have filed a joint complaint with the Ombudsman to denounce the situation.
The lack of appointments, they warn, “denies migrants access to basic rights” and leads Spain to “fail to comply with European legislation” on asylum.
Never before have there been so many asylum seekers in Spain, but at the same time, it is increasingly complicated to start a procedure that requires a mandatory prior appointment.
Until May 2023, appointments were made online, but the system was vulnerable to attacks by
hackers
who hoarded appointments and then sold them for up to 200 euros.
And they were paid, because it was the only way to achieve them.
The Police ended up arresting the alleged
hacker
who allegedly controlled a squad of
bots
to control appointments, but the problem continued and the option of requesting them online ended.
To resolve the issue of cyber attacks, the Police decided, unilaterally, to give police stations the power to choose their own way of managing requests.
Emails were offered
and telephones, but the lack of personnel to deal with the flood of requests has made access even more complicated, according to NGOs.
This solution was, in theory, provisional, but there is no sign that a new alternative is on the horizon.
Police sources recognize the problem, but argue that it is not in their hands to find a solution, which would involve creating a computer system capable of offering appointments on the internet, but also of stopping hackers
.
The Ministry of the Interior highlights that the Asylum and Refuge Office has multiplied its employees by five (from 60 to 300) to reinforce the workforce and deal with the increase in requests.
Interior obvious that this increase in staff has no impact on the purpose of the complaints presented this Tuesday, that is, on access to the procedure, nor on the interviews that applicants must do later, but rather they are officials who are dedicated to study the files once your request has been formalized.
More information
Europe breaks records in unanswered asylum requests
Despite access difficulties, Spain broke the record in 2023 with 163,218 registered applications.
Given the constant complaints for months, this figure does not represent the number of people who today intend to request asylum.
The problem worries UNHCR.
The UN refugee agency appreciates that, in recent years, resources allocated to solving access problems have increased, but warns that the effort is “insufficient.”
And adds:
“It is essential that those who want to request asylum in Spain can exercise that right within reasonable deadlines.
The situation of delays is leaving many people in a vulnerable situation.”
A group of migrants protest in front of the headquarters of the Ombudsman. Álvaro García
A group of migrants accesses the headquarters of the Ombudsman, in Madrid.Álvaro García
Three migrants, along with the documents presented this Tuesday before the Ombudsman. Álvaro García
A group of migrants, in front of the headquarters of the Ombudsman. Álvaro García
The migrants, about to officially present their complaints to the Ombudsman.Álvaro García
Neighborhood associations, very present during the protest.Álvaro García
On the left, Javier Baeza, parish priest, along with Blanca Aller, representative of Alcalá Acoge (center) and María G, from Sercade (right), and some of the migrants.Álvaro García
The vulnerability that UNHCR refers to is closely linked to the irregular situation in which those who want to request asylum and cannot are left.
A Malian fleeing the war, for example, ends up arriving in Spain by cayuco to live in a safe place and, although his nationality is one of those with the highest recognition rate, he will encounter multiple obstacles—among others the language— to make an appointment and finish your process.
Without being able to start the procedure, they are considered an immigrant in an irregular situation, without the right to work, with difficulties in accessing healthcare, depending on the autonomous community in which they live, and problems renting a place to live.
He, too, will not be able to open a bank account or enroll in a multitude of training options.
If he had more facilities to access the procedure, he would be guaranteed minimum rights until his request was resolved and he could, for example, work after six months.
A similar situation is experienced by hundreds of people who have arrived in the Canary Islands in recent months.
At this Tuesday's demonstration, for example, there were many residents of the military camp that has been set up in Alcalá de Henares to accommodate 1,700—some of whom are minors—.
None of them have been able to request asylum until now, something that leaves them without options to leave a reception center where the conditions are “very harsh” according to their testimonies.
Some of them have spoken with EL PAÍS to tell about their situation.
Harouna Conte, a 22-year-old Guinean, presents his complaint to the Ombudsman. Álvaro García
Harouna Conte, a 22-year-old Guinean, has experienced everything at his young age.
At only seven years old, he saw how his family was murdered by the army during the protests of September 27, 2009 in Conakry, in which 157 people lost their lives for demonstrating against the military junta that governed the country.
After miraculously escaping alive, he was adopted by another family who took care of him until he was 18 years old.
Then, his adoptive father taught him to drive and took him to Morocco to find work, but he ended up in conditions of semi-slavery on a tomato plantation where he stayed for a few years.
He is afraid to return to his country, he says, since he knows of several cases of persecution of people who, like him, are witnesses of what happened in 2009. He arrived in the Canary Islands on a boat in November along with 54 other migrants and has remained since December. in limbo in the CAED of Alcalá de Henares.
His goal: to put into practice what he learned from his adoptive father and become a bus driver in Madrid.
The 33-year-old Senegalese, Abdou Khadar, during the protest this Tuesday. Álvaro García
When questioned about the story that pushed him to leave his country, Senegal, Abdou Khadar, 33, realizes that it is
a climate displaced person.
He was a fisherman in Saint-Louis, northwest of Senegal, until the advance of the sea ended up swallowing his house.
The local population protested the situation and demanded that the Senegalese government transfer them to another place where they could live, but the response was always the same: repression.
For protesting, he ended up being booked by the authorities and fled the country for fear of reprisals.
He explains that in recent years, the rise in sea level was becoming more and more evident, but that was not his only problem.
“More and more international boats came to fish with permission from the Senegalese government in exchange for money, but those who suffered were the local populations, who found it increasingly difficult to find fish.”
The lack of response from the Spanish administrations has him distressed.
His only goal is to “work on anything.”
Anything, except one: “I would prefer not to be a fisherman again,” he says.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_