Benidorm launches a new line of aid to reduce the digital divide

Benidorm City Council has approved a new line of aid aimed at supporting the work carried out by associations or non-profit entities based in the city to contribute to the elimination of the digital divide among migrants, one of the groups most affected by the difficulty of accessing digital media. The Councillor for Social Welfare, Ángela Zaragozí, explained that the local Government Board has given the green light to these subsidies, for which 6,000 euros has been reserved in this first year.

Ángela Zaragozí indicated that “as a consequence of the progressive implementation of telematic media in the Administration, we have detected that a large number of migrants are faced with the difficulty of being in the so-called digital divide, a circumstance that makes it practically impossible for them to exercise many of their rights”, hence the “need to find mechanisms to help them eliminate these digital obstacles and promote their full inclusion”.

Associations and non-profit entities specialising in the care of migrants, legally constituted, whose work takes place within the municipality of Benidorm and which are accredited by the relevant body to electronically submit applications and immigration documentation through the Mercurio application and others, as explained by the Councillor for Social Welfare, may apply for this call for aid. In addition, these entities "must be registered in the Registry of Associations of Benidorm City Council, at least six months before the publication of these rules, and have a registered office to provide their activity, open to the public and with a stable schedule, either in Benidorm or in a town in our area but where they also serve registered and resident people in our municipality," added the councillor.

These organisations will be eligible for a grant of up to a maximum of 3,000 euros per entity, which they can use to cover the costs of the staff in charge of carrying out the online procedures and the subsequent monitoring of files and information for interested parties.

The purpose of this new line of aid is, as explained by Ángela Zaragozí, to offer migrants the possibility of electronically submitting their files for residence in Spain on the immigration platform through SEDE MERCURIO and providing the documents through the ADAE application; the processing of the file for the acquisition of Spanish nationality through the SEDE of the Ministry of Justice and its subsequent monitoring; the precise monitoring of the files electronically for their subsequent notification to the interested party and to carry out, in a precise manner, any possible corrections; and the continuity with the process of managing the different administrative fees for immigration, fingerprint or nationality procedures, as established in the bases of the call.

The application period will begin the following day of the publication of the rules governing this call in the Official Gazette of the Province and will end 15 calendar days later. The application form, as well as the rest of the documentation required to qualify for the grants, must be submitted electronically through the electronic office of the Benidorm City Council (https://sede.benidorm.org/eAdmin/Sede.do).