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Barcelona, Madrid to adopt schemes to help migrants

Xinhua, September 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Local authorities of Barcelona and Madrid on Wednesday said they were adopting a scheme to help some of the thousands of desperate migrants trying to make their way into Europe.

Barcelona authorities, now headed by anti-eviction protester Ana Colau, confirmed on Tuesday it met with local charities.

"Barcelona's intention is to work to set up a network of cities of refuge in order to face up to this crisis in a unified way," it said in a statement, which confirmed that many local families had "offered to receive refugees."

That initiative was joined by the Madrid local authority, currently run by the progressive Ahora Madrid party.

"The city hall is joining the network of host cities proposed by Barcelona and in the coming days will propose resources and measures to tackle the refugee tragedy," it said.

This attitude contrasts with that of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who said on Tuesday during his visit to Germany that Spain was only willing to receive 2,700 migrants in 2015.

Rajoy cited the high number of illegal immigrants in Spain as one of the reasons for that low number.

The International Migration Organization says that so far this year, 2,166 people have tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Spain, which is well below the IMO's figure of 107,000 for Italy and 157,000 for Greece.

This prompted Ahora Madrid to say Spain's response to the crisis was "very poor." Endit