As tensions soar, Spain’s prime minister continues to champion immigration as key to economic growth
MADRID – As Sir Keir Starmer prepares to meet his Spanish counterpart on Wednesday, Spain is struggling to cope with a migrant crisis strikingly similar to the UK’s.
A young Moroccan man was arrested on Friday on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Spanish girl in Madrid, sending tensions over the issue soaring, and leading to migrant children being attacked.
In scenes reminiscent of those outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, protesters targeted the First Reception Centre in the Spanish capital, where the arrested man had been staying.
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The hard-right Vox party planned a demonstration outside the centre on Tuesday evening but the government banned the protest, claiming it would incite violence.
Police are now investigating the assault of two minors and an accompanying adult near the First Reception Centre, which left one of the children hospitalised.
The attack comes weeks after riots between far-right activists and migrants in Torre Pacheco, a town in Murcia, south-eastern Spain, after an elderly local man was attacked.
Starmer and Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, are expected to discuss trade deals at Downing Street in the wake of the agreement over the post-Brexit border in Gibraltar.
However, immigration is the most important political issue in Spain after the housing crisis, according to a recent poll by the influential government-funded Centre for Sociological Investigation.
Protests erupted in Torre Pacheco after an elderly local man was attacked (Photo: Olmo Blanco/Getty)
Despite growing tensions over the issue, however, Sánchez has been a champion of immigration, insisting that it is the only way for the economy to grow in a nation with a declining birth rate.
“Spain needs to choose between being an open and prosperous country or a closed-off poor country. It’s as simple as that,” he told parliament last year.
For Sánchez, it is not simply a question of humanity. In a country with one of the lowest birth rates in the European Union, it is the only realistic means of growing the economy and maintaining the welfare state.
Francisco Martín, the representative of Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) government in the Madrid region, railed against anti-migrant protests in the capital, saying: “Madrid has recorded 256 rapes this year, yet only this case elicits such political zeal … It is unacceptable to criminalise vulnerable populations.”
Spain’s government has pledged to help migrants to navigate the jobs market, ensure they are not confined to low-skilled, low-paid jobs, and reduce bureaucracy for residency applications.
Spain’s economy grew by 3.2 per cent last year, making it the envy of European rivals. Economists have suggested the arrival of legal migrants to take up jobs in key sectors like hospitality and construction has been key to this success story, alongside a healthy tourist industry.
“What is key to this growth are tourists and migrants to do the jobs in the tourist industry,” Javier Díaz-Gimenez, of the IESE Business School in Madrid, told The i Paper.
However, polls suggest many disagree with the pro-immigration policy of Sánchez.
Last month, a poll for El Mundo newspaper found 70 per cent of Spaniards supported mass deportations of illegal migrants – a policy recently proposed by Reform UK.
The same policy has been championed by Vox in Spain, but no other party has backed this stance.
After the rape of the teenager in Madrid, Vox blamed Sánchez’s “open door” policy.
“The sexual assault against a 14‑year‑old in Hortaleza is a consequence of the ‘progressive consensus’ embodied by both the socialist party and the Popular Party,” Javier Ortega Smith, Vox’s spokesperson in Madrid, said.
In July, riots erupted after a 68-year-old man from Torre Pacheco was assaulted by three North African youths.
The attack triggered days of racially charged disturbances in an area which is home to many migrant agricultural workers.
The issue of where to hold migrant children is the source of a heated political debate in Spain.
Reception centres for unaccompanied migrant minors are controversial and many regional governments like Catalonia refuse to host them, citing concerns about overcrowding, safety and the strain on local services
This stance is often backed by right-wing political parties.