The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and the Government of Cantabria have agreed to the free cession of use of an area of 43,500 square meters where the psychiatric center of Parayas is located, in disuse since 2016, and which will become a refugee center. The Minister of Inclusion, José Luis Escrivá, and the Vice-President of Cantabria, Pablo Zuloaga, have been responsible for initialling the agreement.
Escrivá thanked “the collaboration of the Government of Cantabria” and stressed that the construction of the new refugee center “will greatly revitalize the area”.
Zuloaga, for his part, has valued the collaboration between the Autonomous Government and the Central Executive that allows “giving life” to a facility that has been in disuse for seven years and with constant deterioration, and turning them into a space that will contribute resources to the Autonomous Community, generate employment during its rehabilitation and subsequent exploitation, and also help the institutions to provide an adequate and immediate response to those people who have to leave their countries of origin due to an emergency situation.
With the signing of this agreement between the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, and the Vice-President of the Government of Cantabria, Pablo Zuloaga, the Ministry will be able to initiate the corresponding actions for the tender of the necessary rehabilitation works. The center will have a capacity of approximately 300 places and it is estimated that the works will begin in summer. These facilities, fruit of the agreement between the Ministry and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), will also be equipped with sports equipment, as announced by the minister.
The Parayas centre is part of the new Reception Centres for International Protection (CAPI) that the Ministry of Inclusion plans to develop, within the framework of its strategic plan for increasing the capacity and efficiency of the reception system, within component 22 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The new centres are funded by ‘Next Generation’ funds.