01 Oct In May 2019, Europe will vote on migration
Article published in euractiv.com 09/27/2018
Shortly after settling in at La Moncloa, Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, welcomed the ship Aquarius after it was rejected by the Italian government. But a few months later, his immigration policy changed, writes Beatriz Becerra.
Beatriz Becerra is the vice-chair of the human rights subcommitee at the European Parliament and MEP with the ALDE group (Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe).
Sánchez’s initial welcoming gesture helped to reach those who had not heard that there was a new prime minister in Spain. But it also served to hand a victory to Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. I said it then: if the xenophobes win, while those who are not keep silent, something is not right. Something is not what it seems.
A couple of months later, Sánchez’s immigration policy continues to make the xenophobes glad. Now we have turned it upside down: we no longer welcome vessels but use existing agreements with Morocco to deport more than a hundred immigrants.