The Diplomat
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, thanked yesterday in Madrid the role played by Spain in the International Donors Conference for Venezuelan refugees and migrants.
Grandi made an intense working visit to Madrid yesterday during which he was received in audience by King Philip VI at the Zarzuela Palace (accompanied by the UNHCR Representative in Spain, Sophie Muller, and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean, Cristina Gallach) and met with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya; the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; and the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá.
During their meeting with Sánchez at La Moncloa Palace, both paid special attention to the humanitarian situation of displaced persons in Latin America and Grandi thanked the Spanish Government for its role in the organization of the International Donors’ Conference in solidarity with Venezuelan refugees and migrants, jointly sponsored by Spain and the European Union. The aim of this initiative, which raised more than 2.5 billion euros in donations and loans, was to address the needs of Venezuelan migrants and strengthen the capacities of host countries in the context of COVID-19. During the conference, held last May, Spain announced a contribution of 50 million euros in aid to countries in the region hosting Venezuelan migrants and refugees, especially Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Brazil.
Likewise, according to Moncloa, Sánchez reminded Grandi that Spain currently holds the presidency of the Assembly of the Sahel Alliance and is interested in mobilizing the international community to help the region and, in particular, to address the situation of forcibly displaced persons, an objective, he warned, for which it is necessary to combine work on security, development and humanitarian assistance with that of migratory cooperation.
On the other hand, the head of the Executive informed Grandi that Spain is currently working on the elaboration of a National Action Plan for the Implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees and showed the Government’s interest in participating in the joint organization of the commemorative event of the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Convention.
Spain, which returned to UNHCR’s Major Donor Group in 2020-is one of the leading recipients of asylum applications in the European Union. In 2020, it ranked third in EU applications, with 88,762 requests, mostly from Venezuelans, Colombians and Hondurans. In addition, during the last year, Spain resolved 116,567 international protection files, almost twice as many as in 2019 and nine times more than in 2018.
