• NGOs, trade unions & political parties call for demonstrations nationwide
• Groups target ‘World Refugee Day’ to make election issue of refugees’ plight
Spanish non-governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions and left-of-center political parties have banded together and chosen World Refugee Day on 20th June to call attention to the ongoing plight of refugees from the Mid-East and Africa and make the refugees’ desperate situation a general election campaign issue, just six days before Spaniards go to the polls on Sunday 26th June (26-J).
At a Madrid press conference Wednesday, representatives of the Spanish Commission on Refugee Aid (CEAR), Médicos del Mundo España, CONGDE (the Coordinating Council of Development NGOs in Spain), the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and Union General de Trabajadores (UGT) labour unions, along with political parties PSOE, Podemos and Izquierda Unida called for rallies and demonstrations nationwide on 20th June in order to place the issue of the need for “another model of refugee assistance” into the spotlight of the general election campaign.
Calling their campaign SOS Refugiados – Europa a la Deriva (SOS Refugees – Europe Adrift), the groups said that Spain and Europe’s refugee response has been an abject failure. Citing what they called the “shameful and illegal” agreement between the European Union and Turkey for the return refugees and migrants en masse to camps in Turkey, they called for a change in policy that extends rightful asylum and stops the current violation of the rights of migrants and refugees.
► Read More & Watch Press Conference Video in Spanish at Europa Press …
► Read the Full Text in Spanish of the SOS Refugees manifesto …
