The Diplomat in Spain

Al Safadi and Borrell during their meeting./ Photo: MAEC

Eduardo González. 31/07/2018

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, warned yesterday that the current flow of migrants arriving to Spanish coast is a “controllable” figure and nothing comparable to the situation in Jordan, that since the beginning of the conflict in Syria has received refugees equivalent to 20% of its population.

“Since 2011, Jordan has hosted one and a half million refugees who join the community of Palestinians that already exist in its territory. We are worried when a few hundred arrive, imagine for a country like Jordan, with 6.5 million inhabitants”, said Borrell during a joint press conference with the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ayman Al Safadi, held at the ministerial headquarters of the Viana Palace in Madrid.

“Those who have really had to endure the shock have been the immediate countries, Lebanon and, above all, Jordan, a country with which the world owes a debt of gratitude”, he continued. “In Europe, the worst figures were 180,000 refugees to a country like Italy, which has much more population”, and in Spain, he continued, “so far this year have reached 20,000, for a country of more than 40 million. That is not a mass migration”.

“There has been an increase in immigrants in Spain associated with the closure of the Libyan route, since part of the Central Mediterranean flow has been transferred to the West”, the minister explained. “What worries public opinion is its disorderly, brusque, massive and apparently uncontrolled character”, but “we must measure things in their just terms”, it is a “controllable” amount and Spain is “very far from the migratory pressure in Italy”.

Likewise, Borrell assured that, on the part of Morocco, there has been “no change of attitude or any deliberate attitude to increase the migratory flow”, and that everything is due, “simply, because the pressure increases naturally because they circulate more human beings by circuits that until now were less traveled”.

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Spain will approve a soft loan of 30 million for a hydroelectric project between the Red and Dead seas

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During the meeting held yesterday by the two ministers, together with the director of the AECID, Aina Calvo, the “best way to cooperate bilaterally within the EU” was analyzed to help Jordan face the “enormous challenge of the refugees”, explained Borrell.

Also, the two governments agreed on a memorandum of understanding so that the bilateral political consultations are “more systematic and permanent” and Borrell announced that Spain will approve a soft loan of 30 million euros to finance a project of water and electricity between the sea Red and the Dead Sea, in which Israel, Palestine and Jordan should participate.

For his part, the Jordanian minister said that his country “never turns its back on its humanitarian responsibilities” and, despite the fact that its unemployment rate is 18’4%, it strives to provide Syrian refugees with “essential services to which they are entitled as human beings”.

“If we give them the opportunity to live with dignity, we will have a workforce that can help the country, but if we ignore them, we will create the conditions for them to become radicalized”, he said. Therefore, he warned, “investing in refugees is investing in security in the region”.