As many asylum requests as in all 2018

• Immigrants in Spain. "I never imagined sleeping in a bank in Spain"
• Crisis in Venezuela: Spain rectifies and will give international protection for humanitarian reasons to Venezuelans
• Newspaper library: Venezuelan immigration soars 60% in one year

Asylum applications to Spain reach this year 2019 a historical maximum. In the first semester alone, according to figures from the Asylum and Refuge Office , there were already 55,498 requests for refuge, 170 fewer cases than those of the whole of 2018.

This figure is alarming when compared with those of previous years and represents the sum of the total number of petitions registered between 2006 and 2015, when 5,460 were received annually on average.

The list is led, for the first time, by five Latin American countries (Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador ) with 40,826 of the 55,498 registered applications. That is, 73.6% of requests for maximum international protection.

Exactly, there are 19,729 the requirements of Venezuelans, 12,158 of Colombians, 3,212 of Hondurans, 3,200 of Nicaraguans and 2,527 of Salvadorans.

Until three years ago, the most common were requests from citizens from Syria, Ukraine, Palestine and Algeria. Thus, most favorable resolutions from then until March 2019 were granted to Syrians (12,056), Ukrainians (608) and Palestinians (585). Last year, in fact, Syria remained the third country with the highest number of requests. The data from the start of 2019, however, show the trend of a growing demand mainly from Nicaragua and Colombia.

«Last year began the increase in Honduras, Colombia and El Salvador. In the case of Colombia, this has to do with visa exemptions since 2016 and access to international protection is facilitated, ”explains the director of Policies and Campaigns of CEAR , Paloma Favieres , who argues that this trend has to do with access To enter the country. “The people of Syria do not have a step enabled, they need visas to enter. If I am Venezuelan or Colombian, I have easier access to Spain than if I am Syrian, Iraqi, Moroccan or Algerian, ”he says.

The requests of people from Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador have been increasing considerably in the last four years. While 2015 represented only 2% of the total for the whole year, between January and June of this 2019 they reached 16%. Amnesty International spokesman, Carlos de las Heras , affirms that the barriers imposed by the United States on the entry of people, the violation of human rights and internal conflicts have been able to have an impact on the increase in asylum applications from countries in Central America .

While it cannot be established that these people asked for protection from Spain because of the policies of Donald Trump, Amnesty International sources and the UN Refugee Agency (Acnur) in Spain claim to know cases in which border measures imposed for the United States motivated the search for other alternatives.

Acnur spokeswoman in Spain, María Jesús Vega , explains that in asylum applications made at border points, at the airport or in the territory, people from El Salvador and Honduras, in some cases, claim that they have direct family members in States United. "They say that their intention was to go there, but since they know that the situation is very difficult in that country, they choose to come here," says Vega.

Amnesty International also attributes this tendency to greater bureaucratic ease, as Spain does not require a visa for citizens of those countries. In the case of Honduras and El Salvador, asylum applications are associated with the persecution of gangs, as gangs are known to operate in that region and control the drug market or human trafficking, among others.

Regarding the latter, the Acnur spokeswoman warns, it is difficult to demonstrate the threats of the mafias and gangs, since “they are not cases as clear as those of a country where a war has erupted and there is a knowledge of that, as would be the case. case of Syria ». Both Acnur and Amnesty International believe that the asylum system is collapsed and ask that these cases be studied "in a detailed and individualized manner" to avoid possible group diagnoses.

On the other hand, the situation in Nicaragua has deteriorated since April 2018, when students from Managua rose against policies promoted by the Government of Daniel Ortega . Since then, as the UN has denounced, there have been several situations of human rights violations in that country: murders, disappearances, torture and persecution of those who participated in the protests. "Many of the people who left with the intention of returning ended up asking for protection because they could not return to Nicaragua," Vega explains.

The emergency call was also joined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights , Michelle Bachelet , who denounced in March this year the serious situation of the Central American country. "Nicaragua is experiencing a very serious social and political crisis, so it is necessary to resume a national dialogue," he said. Despite the above, the protection measures granted to citizens of that country remain low: throughout 2018, only 25 cases were resolved against the 1,365 processes registered for that year.

The figures show the increase in applications by these countries: Hondurans have gone from 399 in 2016 to 3,212 so far this year. Similarly, the number of Salvadorans seeking asylum increased, and more significantly is the case of Nicaragua, which has gone from 20 petitions to 3,200 in the same period.

Venezuela and Colombia

The Venezuelan crisis is wielded as a cause of the increase in its asylum seekers worldwide. However, in the last year in Spain applications from Colombia grew in greater proportion. If from 2017 to 2018 the number of Venezuelans who requested asylum from Spain almost doubled, those from Colombia multiplied by 3.5: a 251% increase.

The Spanish Refugee Assistance Commission (CEAR) warns that, of the applications they studied last year (11,875, equivalent to 21% of the total), Spain only granted 24% and the majority in the form of subsidiary protection. «Refugee status is granted to persons who claim demonstrated fear of persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinions or determined social fear. Subsidiary protection applies to social population fleeing for war reasons, which is why it is given to Syria, Palestine and Ukraine, ”explains the director of Policies and Campaigns of CEAR, Paloma Favieres.

Although, between 2016 and June of this year, Ukraine was the country with the most unfavorable resolutions (6,669), Venezuela and Colombia are also among the five countries with the most negative, with 3,269 and 2,181 cases respectively.

Favieres maintains that the majority of the population that arrives from Latin America does not receive any type of protection. The case of Venezuela is now different: after an agreement signed in March this year by Acnur, by virtue of the recognition of the humanitarian crisis that the country is going through, those who are denied international protection are granted a work and residence permit temporary for humanitarian reasons. On the other hand, the lawyer and director of the research group on human rights of the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, María Teresa Palacios , warns that the increase in asylum applications by Colombians in Spain is linked to “political persecutions and the presence of criminal groups such as the dissent of the FARC, the ELN or the EPL ».

When asked about the issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia indicated that “it cannot intervene or rule on the matter because the desire and willingness to establish itself outside the country is based on the possible inability of the State to offer protection or that the applicant He doesn't want to take advantage of it.

The CEAR estimates that there are more than 100,000 pending applications, of which 40% are from Venezuelans. «The authorities have been promising a crash plan for nine months to make a way out. The procedure should be six months, but unfortunately it is lengthening more than is due, ”says Favieres.

From the Asylum and Refuge Office, they explain that in recent years, as a result of the international situation, "Spain has experienced a continuous increase in the number of applications for international protection." However, they warn that until July 2018 they did not have a work system or provisions to solve the number of files they received. This year they claim to have managed to study 14,993 processes, when the figure for all of 2018 was 12,889.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Spain
• Colombia
• Nicaragua
• Venezuela
• Syria
• U.S
• Ukraine
• Palestine
• Un
• Donald Trump
• Algeria
• FARC
• World
• Graphics
• immigration

InterviewLydia Cacho: "Criminals have infiltrated Venezuelan politics and companies"

Immigration The B side of the descent of the paws

MediterraneanMatteo Salvini, a minister with powers over the head of the Government