CIE, doubts on the reform

The reform of the 2009 organic law for the regulation of immigration in Spain had set a six-month deadline by which the Government was meant to approve a regulation on alien internment centres, after three decades had gone by without a comprehensive regulation on Immigrants detention centres (Centros de Internamiento de Extranjeros). After four years and a few months, the Council of Ministers adopted the CIE regulation. To date there are 8 CIE in Spain, 5 of which in the Iberian Peninsula (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza e Algeciras) and 3 in the Canaries, providing reception to 2700 migrants. In a joint statement, Spanish Religious Conference (CONFER), the Jesuit service for migrants and Caritas Spain highlighted the lights and shadows of the adopted text. Lights and shadows. Spain’s Jesuit service for migrants (Sjm) and Caritas Spain call for an inclusive, welcoming society for migrants. They underline that the “the document benefits detained migrants as well as the officers and staff in the Centres, as well as society as a whole.” Moreover, they “confide that the new regulation and its upcoming implementation may clear the field and clarify many of the complaints and criticisms filed against CIE centres in recent years with public and private complaints.” However, they point out: “Although the regulation constitutes an advance, it fails to acknowledge many of the resolutions of the CIE Courts of surveillance, the ombudsman’s recommendations and those of the public prosecutor and the observations of social organizations that are near the migrants on a daily basis.”Aspects ignored in the regulation. For Sjm and Caritas the regulation leaves out a set of important aspects, notably, that “the regulation lays down the conditions for the functioning of CIE, but not the criteria for entry”. In fact, Sjm and Caritas underlined, “detention” “should be adopted only in exceptional circumstances and on a case-by-case basis, having regard to the specific circumstances of the case”. Not only: “The tasks assigned to social services do not comply with the importance of these services in terms of detention and protection, for example, of possible asylum seekers, minors, victims of trafficking or sexual violence and other vulnerable categories.” “Supervision with the introduction of firearms in the CIE is incomprehensible and alarming.”The perplexity of the religious. Also the Migrations department of Confer’s Justice and Solidarity sector voiced concern on the adopted document. “It is expected that publishing a regulation for the first time is good news”, states the Confer document. And it would, “if its enforcement equally ensured the respect of the rights of the migrants detained in the centres”. In reality, the fact that a migrant may be kept in the centres for 60 days without having committed a crime “violates the right to the freedom of movement.” Moreover, “the regulation does not alter the CIE’s functioning as a whole.” The Confer document points out that “CIE management is left in the hands of the national Police Department, thereby consolidating a police-like management model that subordinates the rights of detained migrants to control and security checks.” The CIE director is set to take the final decisions on the hospitalization of detainees. “According to social organizations – Confer points out – this decision should comply with medical criteria and not with those set by police officers.” The regulation establishes that the members of human rights organizations should be authorised by the director of the Centre to make visits, after having presented a copy of the statute of the organization, a membership certificate and the purpose of the visit. “Some organizations interpret these measures as a way to limit assistance to detainees through red tape and excessive control mechanisms”, Confer said.