Escrivá: "The Ukrainian emergency has been a major challenge for the reception system and our response has been exemplary"

2023.2.22

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The minister pointed out that although it has been "an enormous challenge for our reception system, requiring a great effort of coordination between administrations", Spain's response "has been exemplary, demonstrating great agility and capacity to adapt to the different moments of the crisis".

In this respect, Escrivá pointed out that Spain, with 168,000 people, has received the fifth largest number of displaced persons from Ukraine in the last year. Of these, more than 135,000 have been attended to in the CREADE (Reception and Referral Centres) opened by the Ministry of Inclusion when the Ukrainian crisis began. In addition, more than 82,000 people are now registered in a Spanish municipality, 78,000 have a health card and 14,000 are employed and registered with the social security system, "data that show the rapid integration of this group".

Regarding the reception system, the minister underlined that more than 35,000 displaced persons from Ukraine have passed through the system over the last year, and "more than 18,500 people" currently remain in the system.

Escrivá highlighted that during the first three months of the emergency, when some 8,000 displaced persons were arriving in Spain every week, "the priority was to give initial care to all the people who arrived, and documentation so that they could obtain residence and work permits in Spain".

In this regard, the minister stressed the "speed with which action was taken, as the government approved the regulation to grant international protection within 24 hours of application in a matter of days and with greater scope than in other European countries". In addition, in this first stage, the ministry opened 13 information and assistance points in transport hubs, where more than 74,000 people were attended to.

Opening of CREADE

Within these first weeks, the opening of the CREADEs in Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga "was fundamental in providing comprehensive care for the displaced persons, with documentation services provided by the National Police and initial reception and referral services provided by the Ministry of Inclusion", Escrivá pointed out. They also provided additional services, such as the possibility of obtaining a social security number, a health card and legal advice. "It is a very innovative model of care, which has enabled us to document and refer a large number of people to various resources in the reception system in a very short period of time".

"In the first weeks of the crisis, one of the most complex challenges we had to face was the resizing of our reception resources to receive those who came to Spain without a family network or who could not stay with their relatives or friends", the minister explained. "This effort, and the experience of previous crises, allowed us to open an additional 15,000 places in the first two weeks of the emergency and another 6,000 in the following weeks. Escrivá stressed that although "we had faced other crises, none had been of the magnitude of managing the arrival of 100,000 people in three months".

The challenge, the minister explained, "has been enormous, as we have had to combine the emergency in Ukraine with the response to the increase in the flow of asylum seekers from other countries". In this regard, the system went from having 15,000 places in the February to stabilising at over 35,000 since last summer.

The 24-hour information channels in Ukrainian made available by the ministry were also of great importance during the first weeks. The information hotline has received almost 160,000 calls in one year and the Urgent Ukraine website has had 3.27 million visits.

Pioneering initiatives

As responses to this emergency, Escrivá highlighted the implementation of "pioneering initiatives", such as the family foster care programme in collaboration with the La Caixa Foundation. The project has been implemented in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Murcia, with excellent results, providing foster care for 275 families. He also highlighted other initiatives in collaboration with public and private institutions for the reception of vulnerable people, such as 66 sick minors who arrived for medical treatment and 12 flights under the EU Solidarity Platform.

The Minister for Inclusion underlined that "on this occasion we had greater knowledge of the profiles of the displaced persons, which has facilitated their rapid social and work integration". In this regard, the minister pointed out that one out of every three displaced persons is a minor and, among the adults, 70% are women. Moreover, their level of education is very high, as "two out of three have a higher education". Their inclusion has also been facilitated by the actions aimed at the labour insertion of the people welcomed in the system, such as Spanish courses and individualised social-labour guidance, as well as pilot projects for training in Information and Communication Technologies.

"Thanks to all these initiatives and the fact that temporary protection included immediate work permits, we can say that the labour integration of this group has been quite rapid, considering that 14,000 of them already have a job, despite having arrived less than a year ago and most of them not knowing the language", Escrivá stressed. The sectors with the highest concentration of Ukrainian workers are hotels and catering, construction and commerce.

A financial aid programme has also been set up for Ukrainian families outside the system, managed by the autonomous communities. It consists of €400 per month per household for six months, plus an additional €100 for each child, which "we estimate could reach some 13,000 families".

Last, the minister stressed that the Spanish migration system has shown an "enormous capacity to respond and we are continuing to strengthen it to deal with possible future emergencies".

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