The Minister of Justice, Local Administration and Public Function, José Antonio Nieto, today described as «a successful experience» the Arraigo Programme launched at the Juvenile Offenders Internment Centre (CIMI) Tierras de Oria de Almería, which «gives a second chance» to young people serving judicial measures, by enabling them to facilitate their employment in companies in the area and thus settle in the region. Nieto has defended that the Juvenile Justice system «is probably the best money invested by the Andalusian Regional Government» as it allows to recover for society young people who at some point in their lives, for various circumstances, commit criminal acts.
The Arraigo Programme is a project initiated by Ginso, the entity that has been managing the CIMI Tierras de Oria for 22 years, in collaboration with companies and town councils in the Almanzora Valley, with the aim of helping young people who leave the CIMI after completing their judicial measures and who have reached the age of majority and who lack a support network, as is the case of unaccompanied foreigners or minors without family who can take care of them, to have job opportunities to stay and live in the area, where there are companies that need workers and municipalities that are losing inhabitants.
Nieto thanked the professionals who work with juvenile offenders in Tierras de Oria for their commitment. «You are vocationally involved, you dedicate hours and hours to what others consider a lost case and you manage to make it an example of how to overcome a situation of risk», he said. Thus, he defended that «with the appropriate treatment and professionalism» of the 150 workers of the CIMI Tierra de Oria, only since last summer when this programme was launched, 22 young people found employment when they left the centre after serving the judicial measure and some of them have settled in the region.
This is the case of Mohcine, of Moroccan origin, who arrived in Ceuta when he was 13 years old and after going through several shelters, ended up in a CIMI of the Autonomous City after being involved in conflict situations «for getting involved with people I shouldn’t», he himself admitted during his speech at the presentation of the Arraigo Programme held in the Archaeological Museum of Almeria.
A year ago he asked to be transferred to the CIMI Tierra de Oria because he wanted to arrange his documentation in order to stay in Spain and train to get a job. «It has cost me a lot and I have suffered a lot, but in the centre there is a lot of help, medical care, staff, educator, and I have achieved this thanks to Almería and all the people who helped me a lot and I want many young people there to see the reality», she explained. Now she is 23 years old, has a job and a house in one of the municipalities of the region.
For the Regional Minister of Justice, his case is an example of the success of the project and the functioning of the Juvenile Justice system, which is why he is committed to working so that «every day there is a new Mohcine who has been given a new opportunity and a company has a good professional and a municipality has a good neighbour».
In this sense, Nieto acknowledged that it is necessary to count on the collaboration of «many groups», which is why he acknowledged the support for the programme of the municipalities of the region, the Chambers of Commerce of Almería and Murcia and the more than 40 companies in which the young people do internships and which offer employment to the young people when they leave the CIMI in sectors of activity as important as marble, agro-industry, renewable energies or the hotel and catering industry.
«A hospitable, generous and enterprising province like Almería is the best place to set up an experience of this kind,» he said. Currently, there are 61 young people serving measures in the CIMI Tierra de Oria, of which a dozen are participating in the Arraigo Programme.
For his part, the president of Ginso, Alfredo Santos, argued that the choice of this centre to set up a project like this is no coincidence, as it is a region «with an absolute social conscience». In addition, Almería is «the most dynamic province in almost all of Spain, generating jobs and receiving many foreigners».
He also pointed out that there is a lot of aid and protection for minors, but when they turn 18, young people who have gone through the judicial system, if they have not managed to put down roots, have «an enormous risk of going over to the dark side». In this sense, he recalled that the Law on Minors, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, has as its fundamental objective the social reintegration of juvenile offenders and for this it is necessary «that they have a job, a life that they can develop, their flat, that we get them to become part of our society, which needs people».