Spain moots health care for illegal migrants Turk on ‘terror’ rap in Israel Migrant row threatens German alliance
SPAIN’S new socialist government promised it would restore free health care for undocumented migrants, a right removed by the former administration as part of cost-cutting.
The move is the latest migrant-friendly initiative by the government of Pedro Sanchez, who offered this week to take in a rescue ship drifting in the Mediterranean with 629 migrants on board. Italy and Malta had refused it.
The government would draw up a draft law with the proposal which must be approved by parliament. Although the Socialists have a minority of 84 seats in the 350-member assembly, most parties back the proposal.
“Health care is a right and the protection of health is essential,” government spokesperson Isabel Celaa said.
Spain offers universal health care to citizens. The former centre-right government of Mariano Rajoy withdrew the right to general health care for undocumented migrants in 2012 as part of a programme of spending cuts. It later reinstated some rights, like access to emergency healthcare, in 2015, but fell short of returning full coverage to an estimated 800 000 people residing in Spain without papers.
Spain got a tiny percentage of the total asylum claims in Europe and it accepted fewer than the EU average, the Spanish Commission for Refugees said. However, illegal migration is expected to rise this year, potentially turning it into a more pressing issue for Sanchez – Reuters/african News Agency (ANA) A TURKISH woman is under arrest in Israel on suspicion of security offences, an Israeli official said.
The 27-year-old is “suspected of endangering national security and contacts with terrorist organisations”.
The official declined to elaborate on the circumstances of the woman’s arrest. Turkish Anadolu Agency quoted a lawyer for the woman as saying she was suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organisation. She had been arrested at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have often been tense over the past few years. – Reuters/african News Agency (ANA) ANGELA Merkel’s conservative alliance may splinter in a row over immigration, an ally of the German chancellor said, as the third party in her fragile government suggested its patience was wearing thin.
The dispute between Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party threatens the future of her coalition three months after it took office, just as European divisions over migrants are causing rifts between EU partners.
“I believe (Merkel) will try to the very end to find unity in the matter,” said CDU home affairs spokesperson Mathias Middelberg. Middelberg said the vast majority of CDU politicians backed Merkel in wanting to find a European solution to the migration issue in the two weeks ahead of a June 28-29 EU summit. But the CSU does not want to wait and is urging Germany to take unilateral action.
Bavaria was on the front line of a migration crisis in 2015, when an “open door” policy adopted by Merkel led to around a million refugees flooding into Germany.
Many conservatives held that policy responsible for a surge in support for the farright Alternative for Germany (AFD), the main opposition party since national elections in September.
CSU interior minister Horst Seehofer, whose party faces a regional election in October, now wants Germany to refuse entry to migrants who have already registered in countries further south, a plan that Merkel opposes.
As a compromise, the CDU proposes turning away at the border migrants who have already applied for asylum and been rejected. The CDU also suggests forging bilateral deals to make it possible to send back people who have already applied for asylum in another EU country. Bavarian CSU premier Markus Soeder stood by that proposal yesterday.
A poll for broadcaster ARD published on Thursday found that 62% of Germans believed refugees without papers should not be allowed in. – Reuters