The cost of rent has increased by 24% and the salary has increased by only 8%

The head of government and six of the ministers


The purchase price of a flat has risen by 58% between 2016 and 2022, while the average salary has only increased by 11%. Regarding rental housing, the price increase between 2016 and 2022 has been 24%, and that of wages, 8%. 37.8% of households with lower incomes suffer from an overload of housing costs because the monthly fee is more than 40% of the total income. These are three data that the Minister of Justice and Interior, Ester Molen, gave yesterday to justify the tightening of the requirements for family reunification of immigrants.

And it is that Molen explained, in response to a question from the General Counselor of Concordia Núria Segues regarding this measure in yesterday's Government control session, that the executive had relied on three elements to tighten the requirements: the increase in housing costs, the increase in the cost of living, "which is a notorious fact", and the monthly cost of having a dependent child, which is 750 euros.

The minister, who said that these requirements for regrouping "could be reviewed" if "circumstances changed", had defended the Government's measures minutes earlier to a similar question asked by social democratic councilor Pere Baró. Molen spoke of the need to maintain cohesion and justified the more than 2,500 euros that must be earned to bring the couple to the country or the 3,472 if, in addition to the couple, a child is to be regrouped, in the fact that everyone he must be able to have his needs covered. Molen also spoke about the housing aid paid by the Government. "These are very large amounts, 2.8 million in 2021, 3.6 in 2022 and 4.8 in 2023," he said.


Xavier Spot also wanted to intervene to defend the tightening of the requirements to regroup. "We defend immigration, but we cannot have unlimited immigration", said the head of government, who added that "we cannot pretend that we can accommodate all people who do not have economic resources".


317 PERMISSIONS DENIED FOR HAVING RECORDS

The number of people who have not obtained a residence and work permit or for passive residence since 2012 due to having criminal records is 317. From 2012 until now, 103,307 permits have been requested, which means that the percentage of not granted due to having a criminal record is 0.31%. Of the 317 people who have been refused permission in this case, 255 were citizens of the European Union. These data were given yesterday by the Minister of Justice and the Interior, Ester Molen, in response to a question from the general councilor of Andorra Endavant, Marc Montaged, in the ordinary session of control of the Government that was held in the Council. So far, during 2023, 5,265 applications for residence and work or passive have been made and 14 have not been granted due to history.