Brussels slams Spain for failing to take in refugees

THE LOCAL – Spain has welcomed just 18 refugees since signing an EU accord in September 2015.

Spain agreed to take 15,000 refugees from overwhelmed Greece and Italy under an EU distribution plan, but has so far only welcomed 18, and the country has now come under further criticism for failing to comply with its refugee intake for March 2016.

Spain promised to up the numbers and welcome 467 refugees in March but, two weeks after the end of the month, has failed to welcome a single one, according to the latest European Commission figures, published on Tuesday.  

“Spain has all the necessary conditions to increase its numbers” but must assume “a greater responsibility and commitment,” said Francesca Friz-Prguda the representative for the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, in Spain, who added that the Spanish government needed to make the welcome criteria for refugees more flexible.

Spain’s government had previously blamed the low refugee numbers on the “complexity” of coordination and acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that the EU plan was not going “as fast as (he’d) like”.  CONTINUE READING