The Diplomat in Spain

The Diplomat

The Board of Directors of the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) has issued a note highlighting the work that Spanish officials posted abroad are doing to try to deal with Spaniards wishing to return to Spain in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The note from the ADE, which groups 75% of the members of the Diplomatic Career, begins by pointing out that the pandemic “has revealed the strengths, but also some weaknesses, of the Spanish Foreign Service”, which they assure exists – as do the diplomatic officials in particular – for one sole reason: to safeguard the interests of Spain and the Spanish people and to serve the country, especially in times of crisis.

“We do it – they say – from each and every one of our Embassies and Consulates. Twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. And we do so despite the many material, personnel and security shortages we experience in our daily lives. From countries where you can’t buy masks or gloves because there aren’t any, in cities that suffer from an evident lack of food, where finding a medicine is a major challenge, in very delicate security conditions, with local interlocutors who ignore our demands for collaboration… To all this -and much more- we have to face up to on a daily basis in order to, in the end, achieve our goal: that a Spanish citizen can return to our country.

After recalling that many diplomats have had experience in crisis management (war, civil unrest, natural disasters…) in which they have managed the repatriation of Spaniards from the countries where they were accredited, they indicate that now it is not a question of a specific event in a particular place, but rather a crisis that affects a large part of the planet.

“We are a Foreign Service coordinated from our Central Services, in Madrid, which works tirelessly and in which all the departments of the Ministry and all its officials are involved,” says the note.

Therefore,” it adds, “to all our compatriots who express their disagreement with our work and sometimes go to the media to have their specific problem echoed, we want to say that their Foreign Service works tirelessly to facilitate their return to Spain.

The ADE asks all of them for “patience and understanding”. “Patience”, he points out, “because depending on the circumstances in each country (we remind them that not all countries are the same and that the rules regarding departure vary from one to another) and the sometimes meagre staff of each Embassy or Consulate, their return may take more or less time”.

“I understand”, he explains, “that when we have two or three thousand people blocked in a country that has closed its airspace and there are no airlines operating in it, the solution cannot be individual but collective. And this requires many calls, many meetings and, in short, work and time”.

“We also know – the note states – that there are many people who are grateful to us, because we keep them permanently informed of the changing situations in each country, because we hold constant meetings with tour operators, airlines and hotels to help them alleviate their situation while they are abroad and to return to Spain, because we accompany them (even if it is by talking to them on the phone because they do not let us visit them), when they are admitted to a hospital in a remote part of the world while they are undergoing tests, because we take them books or a SIM card to the hospital while they are isolated, because we take them to the airport if they are not in a condition to travel, because we continue to visit them in prison if they are in prison, because we talk to their relatives in Spain… These grateful people are mostly silent and perhaps their testimony does not have such an echo. But we know that it is there.

“We are doing what we can with the means and personnel at our disposal, which are also limited by the measures decreed in the countries concerned. And in circumstances like these, even more so. We assure them that if in any case we have disappointed the expectations of any citizen it is because we do not physically have the means to do so,” they say.

Finally, they indicate that they continue “to work hard for all these Spaniards who, like us, have to be in an environment that is not ours and that, sometimes, generates a feeling of defenselessness. Much more so in these circumstances. But we are there, do not hesitate”.