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Date Published: 22/04/2021
ARCHIVED - Almeria migrant quarantine hotel closes as contract comes to an end
The Red Cross will continue to attend to quarantined migrants at a youth hostel in Almeria city (Andalusia).
The endless flow of illegal migrants across from the African coast to the Mediterranean regions of Spain has continued unabated during the Covid pandemic, with nearly 6,500 detentions during the first quarter of the year.
This has caused significant problems for the authorities as the migrant transit centres in which migrants are normally housed while the authorities attempt to repatriate them were closed as the Moroccan and Algerian borders were also closed and it was impossible to return the main bulk of the irregular migrants to their country of origin.
To make matters more complicated still, some of the migrants were found to be covid positive, so a procedure was adopted quarantining all of the occupants of a boat if one of their number yielded a positive PCR test; this of course involved the logistics of finding a suitable place in which to accommodate them.
In Almería province, the quarantine centre was set up at a hotel closed due to the covid pandemic, following an agreement drawn up at the end of September between the Andalusian Health Services and Senator Hotels & Resort, which has now come to an end.
The migrant quarantine hotel in Almeria accommodated a total of 321 illegal migrants; according to the health authorities, 21 migrants who had contracted the virus and 300 who travelled with them were isolated at the hotel during its stint as a quarantine centre.
Following the conclusion of the contract, the quarantine centre has moved to the Inturjoven hostel in the city, where the Red Cross will continue to attend to any further arrivals who have be to quarantined.
The Senator group has said that although the hotel has been vacated, it will remain closed for the moment due to the continued restrictions on travel, which prevent would-be guests from reaching the hotel from outside of the province, as will three others in the group.
All staff remain furloughed.
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