Spain welcomes more Afghan refugees: Safe haven for 32 families, including 15 babies

NEARLY 300 Afghans who worked with Spanish service personnel in the Asian country have arrived in Spain with their families, and will be granted refugee status upon application, according to foreign affairs minister José Manuel Albares. 

Along with Secretary of State for Migrations, Isabel Castro Fernández, Albares confirmed the safe arrival this week of a plane chartered from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad at the military airbase in Torrejón de Ardoz (Greater Madrid region).

A year on from the mass rescue operation that saw Afghan nationals flown to safety after the Taliban returned to power – 20 years on from the start of the war when they first entered government – a group made up of support workers, including interpreters, who cooperated with Spanish authorities and troops during the nation's long mission, plus partners, children and other immediate relatives, have been evacuated.

Among the family members who have travelled with them are 'about 15 babies', Albares and Castro revealed.

They had not been left in danger in Afghanistan all this time, however – the group of 294 who arrived in Spain this week have mostly been in the neighbouring nation of Pakistan.

Spain has so far rescued around 3,000 Afghans and resettled them on home turf – about 2,000 of whom were flown to Torrejón de Ardoz in the 11 days between July 16 and 27, 2021, straight from the capital, Kabul.

After this, the remaining 1,000 or so have been gradually brought to Spain from nearby nations including Pakistan, Iran and Turkey.

Prior to the 294 new arrivals this week, the last group arrived a month or so back, Albares and Castro recall.

As each of the latest incomers entered the air terminal, they were informed about how to seek asylum in Spain, and given the opportunity to do so as soon as they got through border control.

Advisors on site were from United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR, known as ACNUR in Spain), and the interior ministry's Asylum and Refuge Office.

Given that the Spanish government assumed ahead of their landing that all those on board would want to apply for refugee status in the country, authorities arranged for charities and social support associations to join them in transferring all arrivals to asylum centres.

They will then remain in these for the next few months until their applications are processed, although if they are Afghan citizens or legally resident in Afghanistan, it is likely their refugee requests will be approved automatically and fast-tracked, in the same way as their compatriots over the past year and the more recent incomers from Ukraine.

Spain's Asylum and Refugee Council, CEAR, the Red Cross and ACCEM run a number of accommodation complexes for asylum-seekers, and the 32 families which have now reached Madrid have been given rooms in 12 of them.

They are expected to be resettled eventually in the Greater Madrid region, in the central-Aragón province of Zaragoza, and in the Castilla-La Mancha province of Guadalajara, to the north-east of Madrid.

When assessing the final destination of asylum-seekers – as has been the case recently with those travelling from Afghanistan and Ukraine – Spain's government works out which regions, provinces and towns have the required resources and facilities, and which are most able to cope with additional members of the population or, in some cases, are most in need of more inhabitants.