The A Coruña town hall Leftover of the Monks It was among the Galician towns in which the Government planned to settle 400 immigrants who had arrived in the Canary Islands. The plan was to host 40 for a month in the local Monastery, but the mayor, Lisandro Santosof the PSOE, he refuses and already assumes that “they don’t come here.” The reason: “A question of capacity, of logistics.” And the fact is that only 1,767 people live in Sobrado and “it does not have the capacity to care for 40 more.” It has the services typical of a rural Galician municipality that are sufficient for its population, but, to receive it correctly, “it is necessary to have a series of services” that they lack.
What is striking about this refusal is that it comes precisely from a mayor of the same party as the Government and Santos does not avoid the issue. In statements to EL MUNDO he explains: “I have a Government of the same political color, but I am mayor and I owe it to my neighbors.” He insists that he has to “look at the well-being” of the population he governs and that “right now that is not the best for my neighbors.”
Thus, he believes that the Government should look for another alternative location to house them, preferably in larger cities prepared to serve a greater number of people. “If they want to do this, I think it’s very good that they do it, but those people have to go to the capital.”
Sources consulted by Europa Press assure that The PorriñoPontevedra municipality governed by PP, will be the new destination for migrants. Neither the City Council, nor the Xunta, nor the Government Delegation confirm this information.
Santos denies that this is a xenophobic refusal. “It is not because of racism, there would be more to go, quite the opposite,” says the mayor, who recalls that two years ago they welcomed 14 Afghan refugees and that among the neighbors there are Syrians, Colombians, Venezuelans, Peruvians and a Jamaican.