The telephone service for information, legal advice and psychosocial care for all forms of violence against women, on 016, received 58,928 consultations between January and June 2024. This means an average of 323 daily attentions.
The Head of the Coordination Unit against Gender Violence of the Government Delegation, Laura Segura, has revealed that Melilla is the city that has received the largest increase, in relative terms, in the number of calls to 016. “We are seeing the consolidation of the service in the city, especially from the pandemic,” he said in an interview with COPE.
In Melilla, 9 calls were registered in the month of June, which means an increase of 125.0%. Segura has highlighted this increase since most of the violence is not reported, only 20%. It has also highlighted the Telephone Service for Care and Protection for Victims of Violence against Women (ATENPRO). Melilla has recorded the largest increase (33.3%) in the number of active users, in relative terms.
“All the verbalization of gender violence serves to get the violence out of where it is, which is in the houses and hidden and silenced. And every call, every helpline or every police protection device means, therefore, an increase in protection”, he stressed.
In this way, he has valued that an “important work” has been done in the dissemination of this service that, he recalled, “is no longer just a phone, it is an email and it is a WhatsApp, and is open to other forms of violence against women, including trafficking and sexual exploitation.” “We facilitate and combine all the needs that can be given on the same phone,” he said.
The 016 is a free and confidential phone number that leaves no trace on the bill and that serves 24 hours a day in 53 languages. It is also accessible to people with hearing and/or speech disabilities and low vision.
In addition to providing general information, it has a legal advice service and immediate psychosocial care for all people who need emotional containment and immediate psychosocial accompaniment carried out by specialized personnel. This service derives emergency calls to 112, is coordinated with similar services of the Autonomous Communities and provides information to victims and their environments on what to do. It also reports on resources and rights of victims in terms of employment, social services, financial aid, information resources, assistance and reception for victims of male violence.
Social involvement
Statistical data reveal that the victims are the main users of 016 and have made almost 80% of the consultations until June. The remaining 20% is made up of calls made by people close to or from the environment.
The Head of the Unit regretted that, in many cases, “the environment does not denounce and continues to look the other way.” She has therefore insisted on the need for a paradigm shift and the involvement of society in eradicating the scourge of violence against women. “It has to be a collective and individual approach,” he said.
“There is no point in us continuing to channel awareness and information campaigns only to the victims, we have to involve the whole of society,” he said. “Sometimes as a society we don’t look the other way directly, but we do it indirectly,” he suggested, “at that time it’s important that we know how to inform them, tell them the resources and make them see that the denunciation saves lives.”
Segura has stressed that “denouncing is key” because it “allows a forced distancing from the aggressor” and helps them “get out of the circle of violence.” And, he has revealed that the latest data maintain that a woman can take up to eight years to report that she is suffering violence, so “if we do not know how the circle of violence works, we will not be able to accompany the victim correctly and we can make mistakes”.
Despite the importance of the denunciations, she has insisted that the ultimate goal is for women to emerge from violence, so “administrations and institutions must be vigilant so that, when that woman wants to emerge from violence, we are able to accompany her, with or without denunciation.”