EST 2005
18th - 24th August 2017
AIRPORT CHAOS: Strikes across Spain could cause massive delays.
Aena strike AIR passengers in Spain could be hit by devastating delays after the CC.OO, UGT and USE unions announced a round of strikes, starting from September 15, across all airports operated by Aena. In Spain Aena manages 46 airports and two heliports and saw over 230 million passengers pass through its airports in 2016. It made a net profit of €1,164 million in the same year. The unions have announced that there will be 25 days of 24-hour work stoppages which would run from September 15 to December 30. Workers’ representatives in the Aena group have been threatening strikes since May if repeated demands on salary and calls for an employment plan were not fulfilled before mid-August.
THE Human Rights Watch have warned that migrants arriving in Spain by sea are held in unacceptable conditions in Motril and Almeria. The organisation reports that migrants are “held for days in dark, dank cells in police stations and almost certainly will then automatically be placed in longer-term immigration detention facilities pending deportation that may never happen.” Judith Sunderland, Associate Europe and Central Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Spain is violating migrants’ rights, and there is no evidence that it serves as a deterrent to others.” The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has reported that nearly 8,000 people reached Spain between January 1 and July 26, 2017, a sharp increase compared to 2,500 people during the same period in 2016. Human Rights Watch visited police facilities in Motril, Almeria, and Malaga in May and concluded that conditions were ‘sub-standard’ with ‘large, poorly lit cells with thin mattresses on the floor, while Malaga police station has an underground jail with no natural light or ventilation.’ They added that adults and children travelling to
PHOTO CAPTION: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Migrants’ rights violated
INHUMANE: Migrants conditions in detention centres revealed to be sub-standard. Spain by boat are detained for up to 72 hours in police facilities for identification and processing with most adults being sent to an immigration detention centre for up to 60 days pending deportation. If they cannot be deported, they are released but have no legal right to remain and are under obligation to leave the country. In Almeria, cells are separated from the hallway ‘by tightly woven steel grills.’ Detainees are ‘locked inside at all times, and taken out only for medical checks, fingerprinting, inter-
viewing and to go to the bathroom because there are none inside the cells.’ Although they are outside, they are enclosed spaces in Almeria and Motril, and immigration detainees are not allowed to use them. The HRW recommends that “As long as the port facilities in Motril and Almeria are used, new measures should be adopted to allow more freedom of movement within the compound, including the use of outside spaces and free access to bathrooms.“
STOP PRESS
Las Ramblas terror attack A VAN has driven into a crowd of people in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona, yesterday afternoon (Thursday) killing at least 13 - according to sources as Sol Times went to press. At least 20 people have also been injured and the Mossos d’Esquadra have launched a manhunt for the driver, who fled on foot. Several armed men are reportedly on the loose according to authorities. Reports also say some of the men have locked themselves into a restaurant. Police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack according to El Pais.
Las Ramblas