Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

The event We weave rights for refugees in the Mediterranean took place on Nova Icaria beach in Barcelona on the morning of Sunday 14 May. It was the final event in the Tenim Drets, Teixim Llibertats programme (We have rights, we weave freedoms) launched by the AMB and the councils of smaller municipalities in the metropolitan area with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants: Begues, Cervelló, El Papiol, La Palma de Cervelló, Sant Climent de Llobregat, Santa Coloma de Cervelló i Torrelles de Llobregat, in defence of human rights at the local level.

More than 300 people took part in this event, at which a cloth was woven, with denunciations, wishes and proposals for human rights by participants from the seven participating municipalities.

Weaving freedoms in the Mediterranean

The centrepiece of the event consisted of a performance on the sand on the beach in which volunteers from the seven participating municipalities sewed together the seven tapestries they had woven separately, containing their complaints, their wishes and their proposals for human rights for refugees. A little earlier, the Begues rugby team and the NGOs Cooperació en Acció and Proactiva Open Arms had symbolically staged a rescue on the high seas. The event also included testimony from the Syrian refugee Hussam Alahamad who in his speech, stressed ‘the gratitude of refugees who fleeing terrorism both by terrorist groups and the Syrian state itself, who have been fortunate enough to end up in Catalonia'. He added that ‘you can be sure that we will never forget it'.

At the close of the event, Alfred Bosch, Vice President of the International Relations and Cooperation Area, said that ‘despite the fact that hosting refugees in our country speaks volumes about us as a people, we must not forget that what people really want is not to have to leave their own country, and it is therefore necessary to resolve the situation in those countries'.

This metropolitan programme sought to raise critical awareness and citizens' commitment to inequalities and global conflicts, to promote social transformation. The programme organises various activities and workshops with citizens of all ages in the participating municipalities, and raises awareness of the conditions affecting refugees and asylum seekers, promotes understanding and respect, and fosters a change of attitude.