(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Spanish charity organizations, municipalities and autonomous groups have all been calling on resolving the issues of refugees storming Europe in the past few days, announcing that they will provide shelter and aid for the refugees.
The initiatives to help refugees came after Barcelona mayor Ada Colau called on Spain to establish a network of refugee camps across the country.
The initiative was welcomed by different Spanish organizations and citizens as well, who offered to provide shelter for the refugees.
Mayor of Madrid Manuela Carmena was the first to adopt the initiative, providing ten million euro to host the refugees and provide with them essential services.
Meanwhile, President of Galicia autonomous Alberto Nunez also announced that he was willing to receive over 300 refugee in fully prepared shelters.
The cities of Valencia, Malaga, Alicante, and Oviedo all supported the plan, as 55 Spanish municaplities called on the government to accept the share of refugees suggested by the EU to settle in Spain.
The municipalities started holding meetings with the Red Cross and other charity organizations to discuss providing aid, as well as meetings with banks to allow refugees to live in unoccupied apartments belonging to these banks.
Moreover, Barcelona started registering the names of families who are willing to take refugees into their homes.
Amidst all pressure by municipalities and organizations, the Spanish government said it had established a ministerial committee which will meet on Monday to resolve the issue.
It also called on a national conference that includes all organizations, municipalites and autonomous governments involved in the initiative to discuss means of resolving the issue according to Spain's policy.
Last Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that Spain will give residency permits for all asylum seekers, during a joint conference with his British counterpart David Cameron.
Spain's situation towards the refugees crisis had drastically changed recently. A few months ago, the country refused the proposal of the European Commission for Spain to host 5,837 refugees out of 40,000.
The country only accepted to receive 2,739 refugees at the time, claiming that it is suffering a lack of resources due to the economic crisis.
Rajoy's perspective had changed after his meeting with Germany's Chancellor Angel Merkel last Monday, where they discussed the effects of the biggest refugees crisis since World War II.
A recent survey showed that 77.8 percent of Spanish citizens support the hosting of refugees in their country. These people believe that their country is capable of receiving thousands of refugees, noting that no matter what the number is, these refugees would not fill the Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid's Stadium), which has a capacity of 80.000 seats.
The Ministry of Interior said the country is set to host about 12,000 according to a law to be issued in the meeting of European interior ministers on September 14th.
Meanwhile, Spanish newspaper El Pais said that the commission will demand spain to host another 15,000 refugees out of 120,000 to be distributed on all member-states (about 12.5 percent of the total number).
Spain had received 6202 residency requests this year, compared to 1585 in 2014 and 2588 in 2012. The country doesn't usually attract refugees, who only see it as a passage towards other richer Eurpean countries.
Refugees in Spain usually live in shelters for six months where they receive 50 euro per month before having to look for another source of living.
The country used to provide a one-year long shelter, where refugees learn Spanish to enable them to find suitable jobs. However, the situations had changed later on due to economic difficulties in the country, as about 25 percent suffer unemployment.
These economic factors lead some in Spain to refuse the thought of receiving refugees, saying that citizens themselves are suffering poverty and are being kicked out of their homes since they cant pay the rent.
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