Spanish ghost airport faces backlash over migrant center plan
The Spanish government plans to convert the Ciudad Real airport in Castilla-La Mancha, which has been closed for over a decade, into a temporary center for immigrants. Local authorities are opposing this plan, claiming it is inhumane.
9:06 AM EDT, October 16, 2024
On Monday, the Ministry of Integration, Social Security, and Migration approved the potential use of the airport, closed in 2011, for this purpose. In recent years, it has been used for filming, private flights, as a service center, and as a parking lot for retired airplanes.
The facility is owned by Ciudad Real International Airport (CRIA), and according to Spanish media, the government has already agreed to use the premises.
Emiliano Garcia-Page, head of the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, has protested against these plans. The politician's entourage, which is part of PSOE, the party led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, is complaining, among other things, about the central government's lack of consultation with local authorities.
"Nonsense and barbarism" - say local authorities about the center in the wilderness
Creating a center in such a remote area would be "absolute nonsense and barbarism," comparable to a "concentration camp," claim local authorities, as quoted by the newspaper "El Mundo."
Pilar Alegria, a government spokesperson in Madrid, stated at a Tuesday press conference that central authorities had contacted the government of Castilla-La Mancha. However, the latter denied that such contacts had taken place.
Francisco Canizares, the mayor of Ciudad Real, located about 100 miles south of Madrid, believes preparations are underway to accommodate 3,000 immigrants. However, the company Tragsa, conducting work near the airport, denied Canizares's statements, claiming that its machinery is involved in quarrying, reports the newspaper "ABC."
Spain is currently struggling with an influx of immigrants, primarily from Africa, via the Canary route. By the end of September this year, over 42,200 illegal immigrants had arrived in the country, almost 16,000 more than in the same period last year. Nearly 31,000 made the dangerous sea crossing to the Canary Islands, whose authorities accuse the Madrid government of inaction.
How did it become a ghost airport?
The Ciudad Real airport, named after Don Quixote, was intended to alleviate congestion at Madrid-Barajas airport. The Spanish constructed it in a remote location at a cost of over 1 billion euros (1,09 billion dollars). It opened in June 2009, received its first international flights a year later, and halted operations for two years in October 2010. Subsequently, the airport's owner declared bankruptcy.
The airport terminal was designed to handle 2 million passengers annually, potentially expanding capacity to 10 million travelers.
The airport was put up for sale, but no interested buyers were found during several attempts. Eventually, an offer from the Chinese was made but rejected. In 2016, the new buyer became the company CRIA, and the search for a new concept for the vacant airport began. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was used as a parking lot for planes grounded by the lockdown.
