Migrant aid associations are criticizing what they call "irregularities" in the initial reception of migrants and asylum seekers at the southern border of Spain, as well as delays in the asylum application process and a lack of beds in centers for asylum seekers.

Ana Isabel Martinez, president of the association Valencia es Refugi, told Spanish daily La Vanguardia that migrants are often pressured into signing repatriation agreements "without an interpreter or an attorney, both of which are legally mandated." She cites the example of three migrants who arrived in the coast city Motril.

'I signed a form without knowing what it was'

Martinez said that after a 72-hour stay in the Temporary Assistance Centre for Foreigners (CATE), Ibrahim Sori, Sekou Camara, and Sekorai Bangouré were forced to sign a voluntary repatriation order. 

"100 percent of migrants who arrive at the southern border do not know what they are signing," Martinez told the newspaper. 

One of the migrants, Sekorai Bangouré, told La Vanguardia that the Red Cross asked the migrants where they wanted to go, whether it was France or Spain, "because in Motril there was no room." 

The Motril indoor stadium is currently occupied by 1,200 people who have arrived in subsequent waves of migrant landings on Spain's southern shores.

Little support for migrants and asylum seekers

"I signed a form without knowing what it was, and no one explained to me what asylum was or how to apply for it," he said. According to witness accounts, the foreigners were transferred by minibus from the southern border to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, or Bilbao, and "abandoned, without money or contacts, after having signed voluntary repatriation orders." 

Some of them have been assisted by refugee-aid NGOs, but as for the majority, Martinez said, "we don't know where they are; probably sleeping in the streets." 

"Through the Red Cross we asked the ministry for places in reception centres, but there are delays of between one to three months," she said. 

Continued migratory pressure on Spanish coasts 

Migratory pressure on the Spanish coasts, where 2,000 people were rescued in one week according to Maritime Rescue sources, isn't letting up. 

Undocumented migration has gone down in Europe overall, with 15,000 arrivals in July, 18 percent less than in the same period last year. However, more than half of those migrants - a total of 8,800 - landed in Spain, a figure four times higher than July 2017, according to data from European border agency Frontex.