Agreement on the distribution of migrant minors: Junts assures that Catalonia will take in 30 and Madrid, more than 700

BarcelonaAfter days of negotiations between Junts and the Spanish governmentThis morning, the party led by Carles Puigdemont announced a new agreement with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) on the distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors currently in the Canary Islands. The agreement was approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers through a decree-law that reforms the immigration law and, according to the Catalan party, will introduce "fair and equitable" criteria for distribution. The agreement with Junts (Junts), along with the investiture majority, should allow the decree-law to be ratified in Congress without the PP. The opposition from the Spanish and Catalan right is what had so far blocked this legal reform, which was defeated in the lower house in July of last year.

The Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, explained in a press conference that the distribution criteria are "transparent" and that they are the same parameters that have guided the sectoral conference on children and adolescents in recent years when it has decided to distribute unaccompanied minors to the regions. Among other factors, the population (50%), the unemployment rate (15%), the GDP (13%), and the economic effort of the community in hosting (6%) play a role.

According to Junts, the agreement revolves around three central points. First, it establishes distribution criteria that take into account the humanitarian situation and, in turn, improve the efficiency of integration. Specifically, this balance will be established taking into account "the population size," as well as "all the efforts made by Catalonia in recent years," referring to the migrants hosted in retrospect. This means that the minors who will have to be distributed throughout the entire Peninsula, which they estimate to be around 4,000, should be divided among those autonomous communities that have not hosted them so far or have made a smaller effort compared to Catalonia. The Junts have established that in Catalonia "between 20 and 30" should arrive, while in Madrid it would be more than 700.

Thirdly, the agreement would include "adequate financial compensation" for autonomous communities that "have been above the average number of structural places they should have," as is the case in Catalonia.The Generalitat now has around 2,400 unaccompanied migrant minors under its care. and is the third largest host, behind Andalusia (2,600) and the Canary Islands (5,790).

Immigration negotiation

This agreement comes after the PSOE and Junts agreed a few weeks ago to delegate powers over immigration to Catalonia, and now it will have to overcome the reluctance expressed by a part of the plurinational majority in Congress (starting with Podemos). Together, they argue that this law should make Catalan "essential" for migrants arriving in the country and decide on CIE (Institutionalized Detention Centers). The Spanish government downplays this and further emphasizes that decisions regarding irregular migration flows will continue to be the responsibility of the State.

The formula for how to distribute migrant minors has been straining relations between the Canary Islands government, the central government, and the other autonomous regions for months. The Canary Islands president, Fernando Clavijo, agreed with the Spanish government to reform the immigration law to make it mandatory due to the saturation of the archipelago's facilities, but the People's Party (PP) refuses to support it. Faced with the reluctance of the Popular Party (PP) regional presidents, Clavijo and the Lehendakari (Lendakari), Imanol Pradales, sought to close ranks and sent their counterparts a joint proposal for the distribution of migrant minors. It included criteria such as total population and population receiving care, GDP per capita, unemployment, and the number of minors receiving care in recent years.

Mandatory distribution?

While the details are still unknown, the agreement between Junts and the PSOE proposes a distribution based on a mandatory decree-law (i.e., it will not be derived from an agreement between autonomous regions, as has been the case until now). This could again clash with the opposition of PP presidents, starting with Carlos Mazón. The Valencian president has pledged with Vox not to accept any more migrant minors in exchange for their votes. in the budgets with which he tries to save himself politically, despite the disastrous management of the DANA.

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announced that this "regrettable agreement" between Junts and the PSOE "will be taken to the courts and the EU" and denounced that "mass irregular immigration cannot be encouraged." PP sources reported that the autonomous communities will oppose the reception of migrant minors if it is not accompanied by financial resources from the Spanish government.

In fact, the PP's position on the distribution of migrant minors was what motivated, in the summer, the departure of Vox from the regional executives it shared with the Popular Party. The far right considered Alberto Núñez Feijóo's position to be too soft. This Tuesday, the leader of Vox in Catalonia, Ignacio Garriga, made it clear that he does not support the new pact between Junts and the PSOE: "Distributing illegal immigrants instead of repatriating them to their families will worsen the collapse of healthcare and insecurity," he said.