Government to grant asylum to ten Kurdish migrants found in lorry

Barcelona (CNA).- Catalonia will give asylum to the group of migrants found hidden in the trailer of a lorry this Wednesday in Lliçà d’Amunt, a village 30 kilometres from Barcelona. They are four minors, an adult woman and five adult men who had probably paid somebody to take them to England. According to the Catalan Secretary for Equality, Migration and Citizenship, Oriol Amorós, the migrants come from Iran, belong to the Kurdish minority and “their human rights were being threatened”, and therefore they could have “recourse to the right of asylum and Catalonia would be able to take them in”. Although Amorós said that “there are still doubts” about when did they entered the lorry and what exactly their journey was, the Government “will do everything in its power” to “give them asylum, regardless of their situation”.  

The Department for Equality, Migration and Citizenship, together with the Catalan Police, ‘Mossos d’Esquadra’ and the Health Department have accompanied the migrants and the Red Cross services in order to guarantee that “they are looking after them and they are in a safe and decent place”, Amorós explained. “They are in good health condition, although one of them suffered an anxiety attack and another minor problems related to being hidden inside a lorry for many hours”, he said.

Now the situation of each case will have to be assessed so that the procedure to claim for asylum can start as soon as possible. However, Amorós was convinced that their situation makes them eligible to claim asylum. “The Government will make sure that they are taken in correctly”, he said and assured that the “channels of dialogue” with the Spanish state will be used immediately.

If they ultimately receive refugee status, they will be offered to participate “in a shelter programme which will last 18 months maximum”. Meanwhile, “their support and housing will be provided first by the Red Cross and later they will also be offered education and language programmes”. In the event that Spain refuses to give them asylum, Amorós stated that this will be analysed later but that “Catalonia will definitely take them in”.

A “very hard, difficult and irregular trip”

Everything points to a “very hard, difficult and irregular trip” said Amorós, since the group belongs to the Kurdish minority and were hiding and escaping from a situation where their “human rights were threatened”.

Regarding the journey of these ten people, Amorós explained that “there are still many doubts about their exact itinerary” and that the investigation is still ongoing. “What we know so far is that they made a very large part of their itinerary on little food and at some point they were abused by the authorities of some other countries” said Amorós and explained that the migrants claimed “to have paid to be brought to England”.  “They are really in shock; when they first came out of the lorry, they thought they were in England”, he added.