Barcelona service assists nearly 20,000 migrants and refugees in 2023

The Barcelona City Council's service for migrants, emigrants, and refugees, the SAIER, assisted 19,500 people in 2023.

This figure is slightly lower than in 2022 when the service attended to 21,000 individuals, the highest number ever recorded, driven by the influx of refugees from Ukraine.

In the first half of 2024 alone, the service has already assisted 10,750 people, making it very likely to surpass last year’s total.

Of those assisted in 2023, around 6,000 were asylum seekers from 134 different countries.

The most frequent users of the service came from Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Morocco, Honduras, Russia, Argentina, and Georgia.

The main needs addressed by the service include social support such as food and shelter, as well as work permits, education, psychological support and asylum applications. 

In 2023, the service realized more than 70,000 actions, mainly related to social assistance and legal advice.

Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni praised the work of the SAIER, emphasizing that Barcelona is a "welcoming city that defends human rights."

He highlighted that the city’s migration processes are conducted with "guarantees and order," contrasting them with the approach of Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, which he criticized.

The mayor also stressed that migration should be viewed as "a potential, not as a threat, as extremist ideologies suggest."