Health Crisis Looms in Migrant Centers as Unsanitary Conditions Persist, Report Finds

Youssef, a young Moroccan, overwhelmed by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and poor conditions in the migrant centers he has traveled through since his arrival in the Canary Islands, preferred to live on the street. "I received a pair of pants and underwear weeks after my arrival. One rainy day, the sewage water entered the tent; that’s when I went to live on the street, because I thought the situation couldn’t get any worse," he tells El Periodico.

Like him, many other migrants who have recently joined the Canary Islands or the Spanish enclaves live in precarious conditions and are exposed to various diseases, according to a report by Médecins du Monde published on Tuesday. These migrants mostly suffer from anxiety attacks, insomnia, headaches and back pain, constipation, vomiting, diarrhea, scabies and fungal epidemics, the document reveals, indicating that the failure of the reception system "without an adequate protocol", added to the increase in migrant arrivals in 2020 due to the health crisis, have led to overcrowding of the centers "which do not meet the minimum conditions for a dignified stay".

To read: Spanish Court Clears Migrant Center in Moroccan Man’s Suicide Case

According to the report, a migrant center with a capacity of 780 places housed up to 1,700 people in 2020, at the height of the health crisis. During this period, some 23,000 migrants arrive