The Care Service for Immigrants, Migrants and Refugees (SAIER) is a municipal resource set up in 1989 to provide all-round support for newly arrived people in the city. The service offers information and advice on immigration, international protection, migration and voluntary returns, enabling users to be referred to different resources according to their needs:

• Shelter services
  • Primary support and information service (SPAI)
  • Initial reception service:  Guidance and Support Service for Immigrant Residents (SOAPI)
• Specialised support services
  • Social Care Service
  • Legal Advice Services
  • Guidance Service for Validation of Qualifications, Training and Employment
• Guidance on linguistic support (CNL)
• Comprehensive Support Service: Municipal Refugee Support Programme NAUSICA

All these services are provided through collaboration with specialised resources and organisations:

• The Association for Guidance, Training and Labour Insertion of Foreign Workers (CITE) and the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB) manage legal advice services specialising in immigration formalities.
• The Association of Mutual Immigrant Support in Catalonia (AMIC) manages the advice service on validating educational qualifications and labour advice.
• The Linguistic Normalisation Consortium (CPNL), which manages linguistic reception.
• The Catalan Red Cross, which manages the social support service.
• The Legal Advice Service for International Protection (AJPI)
• The cross-cutting services of Initial Reception and Information, and the Translation and Interpreting Service

The SAIER offers face-to-face assistance with an appointment, assistance by phone (93 153 28 00) and emergency assistance. More information on services and opening times.

The new SAIER headquarters

The new premises have 1,900 square metres of floor space, with support rooms featuring children’s spaces and a breast-feeding room, as well as rooms for personalised assistance. Besides support for users, the new building brings all the services together in one place, in a building on different floors and a staff of 90 people.

The building at C/ Tarragona, 141, which was already operational, still has the main entrance and reception area for the SAIER, where professionals from the Guidance and Support Service for Immigrant Residents (SOAPI) receive users. The new building at number 173 houses all specialised services and the Directorate for Immigration and Refuge.

Over 19,000 people attended to

The SAIER attended to 19,509 people in 2023, including 6,065 asylum seekers of 134 different nationalities and 26 different languages, requiring translation services in 3,585 instances. The main demands included requests relating to requests for food, urgent social support, work permits and regularisations, as well as training, psychological support, denied applications and asylum appointments.

During the first semester of 2024, one aspect that stands out is the arrival of people arriving from the Canary Islands having reached there by sea from Africa, with a significant increase in people from Senegal, Algeria and Morocco.

Also significant is the increase in people of Ukrainian origin as a consequence of the war there, and the increase in support provided for people of Palestinian origin, rising from 4 people in the first semester of 2023 to 40 in the first half of 2024. Besides these trends, the most common profile is that of people with Colombian, Venezuelan or Peruvian nationality.