Figueres City Council removes 804 people from the census in one year

Fig treesThe oversight of the census has become one of the main armed forces of the city councils that advocate a tougher and more radical approach against immigration. Ripoll is a paradigmatic example, under the far-right government of Silvia Orriols, which has promoted very strict measures to restrict access to registration for newly arrived residents, accusing them of fraudulently seeking to access basic services. But this is not the only case on the agenda. In 2024, this City Council deregistered up to 804 people. deregistration This was carried out through an intensive control campaign by the city council's "verification agents," conducting door-to-door visits to check the addresses of all those who, according to the municipal government, showed signs of fraud. This massive operation to remove people from the census, although presented by the council as a very positive initiative to regulate the residence and access to services of all city residents, has generated much criticism among the third sector.

The Network of Entities for the Register, which includes some eighty NGOs from Girona and its surrounding regions, along with other associations such as Amnesty International and the Federation of AFAs of Catalonia, has published a joint manifesto against the Figueres City Council. In the manifesto, they denounce the racist bias that links the register with crime and defend that registration is a fundamental right of any citizen to access basic services such as healthcare or school. They also criticize the fact that, beyond the cases they've dismissed, the Masquef government also creates additional obstacles and difficulties for migrants seeking to register for the first time.

This is the case of JFV, a man of Colombian origin who has been living in Figueres for three years. He has sent up to five applications and petitions, but has received no response. Desperate in the face of administrative silence and distressed by the situation, he is now seeking advice from the Figueres-based association Ànima Mater and is preparing to take the City Council to court. Last week, he filed a final appeal with the council's statistics department and, if the response is not favorable, he will file a lawsuit against the local administration for violating his right to register on the census.

"I've been here for three years. I work for a logistics company and live in the Marca del Ham neighborhood because I can't afford a better apartment, but I work within the law, I behave well, and I don't understand why they don't answer me," he explains, bewildered. And he adds: "They can't say we want to be registered as a resident in order to take advantage of the system because we don't want to hurt anyone, and it's the City Council that's condemning me to live illegally, since, although I meet all the requirements, the Government can't give me a residence permit because I first need to be registered as a resident." JFV concludes: "It's a very sad situation. The City Council has an obligation to take us in, but for them, we're illegal immigrants and they leave us alone."

Masquef: "Nor there is an open bar"

In response to these accusations, Mayor Jordi Masquef, however, responds that he "strictly complies with the law." Regarding the cases that have been deregistered, the council explains that it has been done through an extremely "safeguarding" procedure, checking up to three times whether the person actually lives at the registered address and then opening the door for appeal. "There are suspicious cases, for example, with many people registered at the same address, without a habitability cell or with a volatile census, and that's when our alarm bells go off," explains the mayor.

Masquef states: "Anyone who wants to live in Figueres must be clear that there's no free pass with the census and social benefits. We are a capital city that must comply with the social services of the entire region. We have more than met our solidarity quota, and we must also be able to help the people in our community who have contributed for many years." According to the City Council, for example, this monitoring has detected cases of couples feigning separation or registering with people with disabilities in order to request assistance.

Regarding the difficulty of registering new cases, the mayor adds: "We are being very careful with the squatters' group because the commission of a crime cannot be accompanied by the granting of a series of rights." This argument, for example, has been repeated repeatedly by Xavier García Albiol, mayor of Badalona, ​​​​with whom Masquef does acknowledge a certain ties in this regard. On the other hand, with Orriols, who recently tweeted announcing that mayors of other towns had called him to find out how he managed to monitor the census, the mayor of Figuereta denies any contact and refers to the newspaper archives to claim to be a pioneer in the matter.

NGOs denounce a biased approach

Masquef's explanations do not convince the NGOs, who maintain a harsh tone against the discourse and policies of the Figueretas government. "We are concerned about how the City Council tries to associate the census and fraud, as if all 800 cases were problematic and fraudulent. Most are ordinary cases, for example, of people who return to their country, do not deregister, and have no intention of deceiving anyone," argues Joan Roura, spokesperson for the Girona-based organizations.

In his opinion, the problem is being misunderstood because they talk about fraud involving racialized people, but "do not pursue white families who have a domestic worker not registered on the census or who send their children to study in Barcelona." Finally, Roura points out that the council's method, instead of combating fraud, actually encourages it: "Since they don't register people who live in caravans, on the street, in rented rooms, or without a fixed address, they ask friends or gangs for help and commit fraud," he concludes.