Charity warns of cases of 'serious' mental illness at Barcelona migrant detention center

The Migra Studium Foundation, a Barcelona-based Jesuit charity that aids migrants, warns of "serious" cases of mental illness and anxiety among those in custody at the city's migrant detention center.

The organization, whose volunteers visit detainees in Barcelona on a weekly basis, and members of the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM) presented the 2022 report on the state of the seven migrant detention centers across Spain – known as CIEs for their acronym in both Catalan in Spanish – on Tuesday morning.

A total of 482 people were held in custody at Barcelona's migrant detention center, located in the industrial Zona Franca area, last year, 85 more than in 2021.

Of these, Migra Studium volunteers visited 65 and found that 47 had mental health problems.

Higher than average hold period

The organization attributes the widespread mental health problems among detainees, in part, to the fact that the Zona Franca CIE has the highest average hold time in Spain: 39 days.

Foreigners can be held in custody for up to 60 days before they are either deported or released. In Barcelona, one-third of detainees are deported, while the remaining two-thirds are released.

Migra Studium also noted that police officers at the Barcelona CIE tend to use solitary confinement as punishment more often than those in other migrant detention centers, another factor that could contribute to poor mental health outcomes.

"85 people were held in solitary confinement in Barcelona alone," Migra Studium lawyer Josetxo Ordóñez said, explaining that they accounted for almost half of those in Spain who had been placed in isolation.

Nine people were placed on suicide watch last year in Barcelona, and while none in the Catalan capital died by suicide, one in Madrid and another in Valencia did.

Detention of an EU citizen

The organization also spoke out against the detention of a Bulgarian woman named Elena who was held behind bars for over a month and a half last year despite being an EU citizen.

"This case makes evident the contradictions and illegal way of doing things when it comes to detaining [migrants]," Ordóñez said. "The detention of EU citizens has no legal backing."

Migra Studium also reported instances of minors, asylum seekers, and victims of gender-based violence being held behind bars, which according to them "never should have happened," and complained of the "arbitrariness" of migrant detentions.