The youth hostel in Arenal could be used to house refugees taken in by the Balearics. | CHRISTIAN HARTMANN

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Fatima Báñez, the national minister for employment, has said that a proposal by the government of Valencia to create a Mediterranean humanitarian corridor for refugees will be taken to the Council of European Union home affairs ministers, which is to meet on 14 September.

The proposal arose at the extraordinary meeting of the conference for immigration in Madrid and it came from the Valencian vice-president, Mónica Oltra, who suggested that refugees arriving in Greece and Italy could be rapidly moved to the ports of Cartagena, Valencia, Barcelona and Palma.

Báñez has stressed the need for there to be analyses of the profiles of those coming to Spain prior to making definite their transporting and integration.

She said that in admitting refugees, they will be given personalised attention. “The numbers are not important, but the people, some with families, others with the elderly, need individual consideration.”

Several regions of the country have criticised the slowness and vagueness of the national government, but deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has made assurances that Spain will admit  - “without hesitation” - the number of refugees to be specified by the European Commission. “The discussion is not going to be about the number.” She added that Spain is showing solidarity and that “we know how to manage the integration.”