Madrid – Central News Hub

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters rally in Madrid

Protesters held up banners and signs condemning a “genocide” in Gaza and lauding the “resistance” of the Palestinian people….reports Asian Lite News

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Madrid on Saturday to demand a ceasefire in war-torn Gaza and a severing of ties between Spain and Israel.

Numbering around 4,000 according to the authorities, protesters held up banners and signs condemning a “genocide” in Gaza and lauding the “resistance” of the Palestinian people.

Palestinians have been “crammed” in southern Gaza and “now they are displaced again from one place to another while there are no more safe places,” said 57-year-old Jaldia Abubakra, referring to Israeli evacuation orders in the city of Rafah.

Around 30 organizations called for the rally before the 76th anniversary of what Palestinians call the “Nakba” (“catastrophe“), when 760,000 people fled their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.

Spanish students have set up peaceful sit-ins and camps at universities in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia in recent days, mirroring similar pro-Palestinian campus movements across the United States and Europe.

Earlier this week, Spanish universities expressed willingness to suspend ties with any Israeli educational institution that failed to express “a clear commitment to peace.”

Spain is one of Israel’s harshest critics in Europe and leading efforts to recognize a Palestinian state.

The Gaza war started with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, at least 36 of whom the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

‘Spain to recognise Palestine as a state’

Spain, Ireland and other European Union member countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said late on Thursday ahead of an expected UN vote on Friday on a Palestinian bid to become a full member.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take the first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Asked on local Spanish radio station RNE if May 21 was when Spain, Ireland and other EU countries would recognize a Palestinian state, Borrell said yes, mentioning Slovenia as well.

“This is a symbolic act of a political nature. More than a state, it recognizes the will for that state to exist,” he said, adding that Belgium and other countries would probably follow.

Previously, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares had said the decision on recognition had been made, although he did not give a date.

International calls for a ceasefire and permanent end to Palestinian-Israeli conflict have grown along with the death toll from Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Israel has said plans for Palestinian recognition constitute a “prize for terrorism” that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the Gaza conflict.

On Friday the United Nations General Assembly is set to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and sending the application back to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably.”

Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE said on Thursday that Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta had been waiting for the UN vote and were considering a joint recognition on May 21.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There was no immediate comment on the date from the other countries.

Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said earlier this week his country would recognize Palestine’s statehood by mid-June. Since 1988, 139 out of 193 UN member states have recognized Palestinian statehood.

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Madrid airport overwhelmed by asylum seekers

Hundreds of migrants, the majority from Senegal, have in recent weeks requested asylum after arriving in Madrid…reports Asian Lite News

Madrid airport is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of African asylum seekers, who have to sleep in crammed, dirty spaces, prompting the Red Cross to stop providing services there in protest.

Hundreds of migrants, the majority from Senegal, have in recent weeks requested asylum after arriving in Madrid while on a layover to other countries, usually ones in South America that do not require entry visas from them, a police union representative who asked not to be named told AFP.

While they wait for their claims to be processed they are kept in rooms equipped with bathrooms set aside for migrants seeking asylum.

The government opened a fourth room to cope with the surge in arrivals but some asylum seekers are still forced to sleep on inflatable mattresses or share a bed, according to the Spanish Commission for Aid to Refugees (CEAR), a non-governmental organization.

“The overcrowding and unsanitary conditions have reached critical levels, causing outbreaks of bedbugs, a build-up of garbage and a shortage of towels for personal hygiene,” it said in a statement.

Videos sent to media by airport police officers show cockroaches on the floor and unsanitary showers.

More asylum claims were made at the airport in January — 864 — than during all of 2022, the last year for which official figures are available, when 767 were filed.

The number of migrants held at Madrid airport at the end of January stood at between 390 and 450, according to CEAR and police union SUP, up from 250 at the end of December.

Overwhelmed authorities were unable to stop 17 people from escaping the holding areas by breaking windows, said a police source who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the record to the media. Another six people tried unsuccessfully to flee by crawling through a false ceiling, the source said.

After raising concerns about the situation, the Red Cross took the unusual step last week of stopping providing services to asylum seekers at the airport.

“The conditions are not dignified and prevent us from carrying out our work normally. There comes a time when there is no point in continuing to do a job if we cannot take care of these people as they deserve,” Jose Sanchez of the Red Cross told Onda Cero radio.

In addition to Senegal, the migrants are coming from Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco and Somalia.

A representative of the SUP union told AFP that most of them dispose of their identity papers on the plane or declare themselves to be minors to avoid immediate deportation. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the sensitive issue.

The migrants usually state in their asylum request that they are from a country in conflict, he added.

The influx is causing delays in the processing of asylum applications. At the end of January, 182 people had still not been able to formalize their claims, according to CEAR, with waiting times of up to several weeks.

While the surge in asylum claims at the airport began in August, it only came to light in December after three magistrates complained of a lack of “sanitation, hygiene and privacy” and shortage of food in the rooms hosting the migrants.

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday demanded “urgent action” from Spanish authorities.

The interior ministry in January opened two new rooms for migrants seeking asylum, bringing the total to four. It has also disinfected the holding areas.

To try to curb the arrivals, Madrid began demanding a transit visa for Kenyan nationals passing through Spanish airports as of January 20 and will impose the same requirement on Senegalese nationals as of February 19.

Spain is one of the main gateways for immigration into Europe. A total of 56,852 undocumented migrants entered Spain last year, an 82.1 percent jump from 2022, mainly due to a record number landing in the Canary Islands.

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