The Ministry of the Interior together with the airport operator AENA have enabled a new room to serve applicants for international protection at the Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport, as reported in a statement by the general directorate of the National Police.
The measure comes in light of the increase in the number of foreigners requesting asylum in Spain, and after a complaint from the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR) that reached the Investigative Courts 6, 19 and 20 of Madrid and which indicated the “increase in the number of foreigners requesting asylum in Spain, in which they reported an “overcrowding situation” in the rooms set up in T1 and T4.
The court described the situation of 244 people in rooms with a capacity for 156 “without the slightest conditions of health, hygiene and privacy, which allow them to protect their basic rights in the circumstances in which they find themselves, in some cases being families and minors”.
Thus, the Madrid airport will have a new space for serving asylum seekers that will be equipped with a dining room, toilets and a rest area with bunk beds. This room joins the other three that already exist at the Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport and aims to improve the conditions of stay while requests for international protection are resolved.
The fourth hall will be the second largest at the airport, with 250 square meters compared to the 110 in Terminal 2, and the 160.91 in Terminal 4 Satellite. However, the Terminal 1 room remains the largest, with 796.77 square meters, and has six bathrooms.
The Ministry of the Interior has reported in the same statement that the General Directorate of the Police has assumed the functions of cleaning the space, through an extension of the contract with the company that until now provided this service in its facilities.
Likewise, the text reports an increase in the number of security service agents and the National Police assigned to carry out interviews at the border post with agents from the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders and the Madrid Provincial Brigade, to expedite the procedures for applying for international protection.