Catalan government urges Spain to reject EU plan for migrant centers overseas

The Catalan government has urged Spain not to back the European Union plan to open migrant processing centers in North Africa, a proposal to be debated by EU leaders at an emergency summit this Sunday.

At a time when the number of asylum seekers arriving in Spain is soaring, Catalonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ernest Maragall, asked president Pedro Sánchez to move from “gestures to politics,” and urged the EU to adapt its refugee policies to the global context in order to “have a tiny possibility of success.”

In a document leaked to the press, such centers are described as “regional disembarkation platforms”: “Such platforms should provide for rapid processing to distinguish between economic migrants and those in need of international protection, and reduce the incentive to embark on perilous journeys.”