A protest has been called in Almeria following the arrival of 49 asylum seekers at a former children’s centre, sparking an escalating political and institutional row.
Residents are being urged to gather in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in Olula del Rio at 8pm on Sunday, August 23, under the slogan ‘Demonstration against uncontrolled immigration’.
It comes after the reopening of the former Cuesta Blanca Children’s Centre, located in the neighbouring municipality of Purchena, to accommodate the group.
The issue has spread rapidly through social media and messaging apps, with a residents’ WhatsApp group reportedly attracting more than 450 members.
However, Olula del Rio Town Hall has intervened to counter rumours circulating locally about who has been moved into the facility.
Officials stressed that the arrivals are not unaccompanied minors and have not been transferred from Ceuta.
Instead, they are 49 adult asylum seekers who have been transferred to the facility from Malaga.
The protest organisers are calling for ‘security and order’ while stressing that the demonstration should take place within the law.
Town halls ‘kept in the dark’
At the heart of the controversy is a dispute over how much local authorities were told before the centre was brought back into use.
The town halls of Purchena and Olula del Rio have both complained of their ‘total lack of knowledge’ about the reopening and demanded greater ‘institutional loyalty’.
Spain’s central government has defended the move as an urgent humanitarian response carried out within the country’s reception system.
The Government Subdelegation said the relevant administrations had been made aware of the transfer by the NGO responsible for managing the facility.
But Olula del Rio Town Hall has directly contradicted that account.
Following its first meeting with Engloba, the association managing the centre, the council said its first official contact took place on August 19.
The council also said the facility operates from a privately owned building belonging to Ginso, falls under the responsibility of Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion and is closed at night.
Vox: ‘We don’t want them here’
Vox MP for Almeria Rocio de Meer has submitted a series of parliamentary questions demanding that Pedro Sanchez’s government explain the cost of reopening the facility and the circumstances behind the transfer.
De Meer has fiercely opposed the arrival of the asylum seekers, declaring: ‘We don’t want them here.’
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
