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In the Spanish system, asylum seekers are placed in the reception place which better fits their profile and necessities. A case-by-case assessment is made by the NGOs responsible and/or by the Social Work Unit (Unidad de Trabajo Social, UTS), the unit in charge of referring asylum seekers to available reception facilities. The UTS falls under the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and is based at the OAR. After assessing the availability of reception spaces and the integral features of the applicant (age, sex, household, nationality, existence of family networks, maintenance, personal necessities, presumed trafficked person or a vulnerable woman, etc.), if feasible, the person is placed in the place that best responds to their needs. This placement is done informally as a matter of administrative practice, without a formal decision being issued to the asylum seeker. Once the applicant is given a place within the reception system, they must remain in the same province.[1] Most of asylum seekers and refugees who are hosted in official reception facilities live in Andalucía, Madrid and Catalonia.
Normally asylum seekers do not move within the Spanish territory, as they do not have many reasons to do so, since they are normally placed with family members or close to any other contact they have in the country. The situation is different in cases of family members who reach separately the Spanish territory or access independently to the asylum reception system. Difficulties may arise in the possibility for family members to join each other, particularly when they are in a different phase of the three-stage asylum reception process (see Criteria and Restrictions to Access Reception Conditions). In this case, there are obstacles to being hosted together (e.g. administrative burden, lack of capacity in certain centres etc.).
Asylum seekers that have made their asylum application in Ceuta or Melilla undergo different rules on freedom of movement. As a result of the special regime applied by the authorities to these two autonomous cities, applicants have to wait for the decision regarding the admissibility of their claim in order to be transferred to the Spanish peninsula and its asylum reception system, together with an authorisation issued by the National Police allowing them to be transferred to the mainland. Limitations are also applied to asylum applicants who pass the admissibility phase, and should be entitled to free of movement in the rest of the Spanish territory. These limitations are informally imposed on asylum seekers. The new Reception Regulation foresees the application of reception conditions also in the facilities in Ceuta and Melilla.
As documented in the previous updates of this report, there has been extensive case law and litigation on the matter in recent years, with various Spanish courts regularly recognising the right to freedom of movement of asylum seekers.[2] By way of illustration, the limitation to the right to freedom of movement across Spanish territory has been declared unlawful by Spanish courts in more than 18 cases from 2018 to 2021.[3]
In practice, however, the authorities continued to restrict asylum seekers’ access to the mainland up until 2020.
According to the information currently available, the practice started to change from November 2021, and asylum seekers admitted at 1st instance were transferred to the mainland.[4] In mid-December, for example, 18 asylum seekers were transferred from Melilla to the mainland and referred to reception facilities in Cataluña, Andalucía and Castilla y León after their applications were admitted at first instance. The asylum seekers were authorised to leave the enclave thanks to the appeals lodged by three NGOs (CEAR, the Spanish Red Cross, and Cepaim). It is hoped that such practice will continue, and that legislation and jurisprudence will be finally correctly applied.
A report published in June 2024 denounced that the bureaucratic framework de facto impedes the freedom of movement in Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands.[5] According to the research, the administrative burdens existing in these places in obtaining also simple documentation (i.e. a passport, because of the lack of certain consulates) trap migrants into an administrative grid which, in practice, hinders their freedom of movement.
[1] Reception Regulation.
[2] TSJ Madrid, Order 197/2018, 19 June 2018, available here; Order 196/2018, 19 June 2018, available here; Order 276/2018, 27 June 2018, available here; TSJ Madrid, Decision 817/2018, available here; TSJ Madrid, Decision 841/2018, available here.
[3] CEAR, ‘Nuevo fallo judicial a favor de la libre circulación de solicitantes de asilo en Ceuta’, 11 July 2018, available here.
[4] Information provided by the legal service of Accem in November 2021. El Foro de Ceuta, ‘Nueva salida del CETI: 40 personas parten a centros de acogida en la península’, 20 October 2022, available here; Ceuta Actualidad, ‘Un sueño cumplido para 30 residentes del CETI’, 25 August 2022, available here.
[5] No Name Kitchen, Taller-Frontera Sur Gran Canaria, Solidary Wheels, No Borders For Human Rights, ‘Burorrepresión en la frontera sur de España. Violencia administrativa contra las personas migrantes en Canarias, Ceuta y Melilla’, June 2024, available here.