Seven courts in the Region of Murcia have authorised most of the more than 500 immigrants that illegally arrived on the coast of Murcia over the weekend to be transferred to a centre in Archidona (Malaga).

The centre in Archidona, a completely new facility, is fully fitted-out, and even has its own infirmary building, with ten rooms for four patients each, in order to cater for the immigrants that have arrived in recent days in Cartagena, mainly from Algeria, under the appropriate humanitarian conditions.

The facility in Archidona is built on a surface area of 102,232 square metres. It has 1,008 rooms distributed in 12 residential modules, as well as four multi-purpose modules.

Sports zones, classrooms and entertainment area

Fitted out with the most modern technology, the centre in Archidona is equipped with a canteen, a commissary for the sale of small items to interns, a multi-purpose area with a television and an entertainment area. It also has extensive areas to practise sport, with a five-a-side football pitch, a basketball court and even an area to play fronton.

The centre has an occupational workshop, teaching rooms, a gymnasium with showers and changing rooms and a hairdresser’s. It has climate heating through radiators, mixed water showers with regulated temperature, toilets and hand basins, fire detection measures to control possible fires and an intercom system for communication with the control post.

Temporary measure

This temporary measure was adopted by the judges on an extraordinary basis given the impossibility of providing accommodation for the more than 500 immigrants that arrived over the weekend on the beaches in Murcia due to the limited capacity of the various existing centres in the region at this time.

The ministerial department is working to comply with European regulations on immigration and providing accommodation, and is also trying to reach an agreement with the different parliamentary forces on the new model of detention centre that the government wants to approve in the coming weeks, which has received the backing, to date, of Ciudadanos.

Almost 1,000 immigrants since Thursday

Since Thursday 16 November, a total of 962 immigrants have arrived by boat to the Spanish shores, of which 387 are of Sub-Saharan origin, 13 are from Morocco and another 562 from Algeria. Most of them arrived on the coast of Cartagena, although others arrived in Almeria, Torrevieja (Alicante) and Malaga.

The total number of immigrants who arrived illegally between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning amounted to 629, of which 547 are Algerian, 13 are Moroccan and 68 are Sub-Saharan.

In addition, another 333 immigrants arrived between the afternoon of 16 November and the morning of 17 November – 318 of Sub-Saharan origin and 15 Algerians – which brings the total number of illegal immigrants that have arrived in the last 48 hours to 962.