From the PP to the CUP: town councils of all colors hinder access to the registry

BarcelonaRegistering in the municipality where one resides is a rocky road for many people who do not have a rental contract. Increasingly there are more town councils are creating obstacles for registration, a double obligation procedure for both local administration and all citizens, which in recent years has become a political weapon among mayors of all political colors. In a survey conducted by Ksnet on behalf of ECAS (the federation of Catalan social action entities) among about fifty social entities present in 60 municipalities (where 5.1 million inhabitants live), it is indicated that 40 of these populations have difficulties or incidents in this procedure. In half of them, rights are directly violated because they do not comply with the law when they do not recognize the figure of fictitious or no fixed address registration, foreseen, precisely, for residents who cannot or are not allowed to register their residence in an apartment or who live on the street. "Not wanting to register everyone who lives there is cheating yourself," summarized Pepa Fernández, a defender of the citizenry of Santa Coloma de Gramenet.

The report shows that the obstacles are structural and are found from the moment the person tries to register in the registry until the last stage of the process: doubts about the necessary documentation, the digital divide, the lack of information, the arbitrariness in the criteria, the verification of the domicile or the delay beyond the three normative months to resolve the request. But for economist Elena Costa, author of the report, not all these obstacles respond to "an ideological hurdle". In fact, the indicated town councils represent the entire political spectrum, those that openly champion their refusal to register those without a legal rental contract or have a harsh discourse on immigration —Martorell (Junts), Badalona (PP), Figueres (Junts)—, but obstacles have also been detected in mayorships governed by the PSC —Cornellà or Sant Joan Despí—, ERC —Salt— or CUP —Girona—, parties that last year "subscribe to the Parliament the national pact for registration, in which they undertook to guarantee compliance with the state law of local government.

Costa has pointed out that "it is difficult to know when there is intentionality" on the part of the town councils or officials to complicate the processes or if it is due to problems of inefficiency or errors of the system itself. In his opinion, it should also be taken into account that social services, the entry point for many applicants, are saturated and there are problems in the channels for circulating clear and understandable information, sometimes even because those on the other side of the counter do not know it.

Improve the system

For this reason, Kautar Loukaini, spokesperson for ECAS, has stated that the report "does not aim to be a ranking" of non-compliant municipalities, but rather a diagnosis of the situation many citizens find themselves in when registering in the municipality where they reside, and to provide guidelines for improving the system, reviewing usual practices, and strengthening legal certainty. "We are not asking for exceptional treatment, a privilege, only that the law be applied with guarantees and that criteria be harmonized, with clear and public procedures," the activist emphasized.

The presentation of this report on Tuesday coincided with the arrest of two people in Badalona who were charging between 500 and 1,000 euros to undocumented foreigners for a false registration. In this regard, Caritas lawyer Sònia Lacalle stressed that it is precisely this non-compliance with the law regulating the census that fuels the mafias that take advantage of people's needs. However, she indicated that "fraud is not just paying to register," but it is also a trap to register in a different locality than where one resides, seeking a specific school or for fiscal benefits or insularity with discounts on plane tickets, for example. "Fraud will continue as long as there are disparate criteria" in the registrations.

Among the profiles most affected by these difficulties are migrants without regularization, people living as subtenants or squatters or in settlements, as well as those residing on the street or in shelters, or families with children. The report also notes that people who register on their own have more difficulties than if they do so with the advice of social entities, another symptom of "discrimination and inequality".