THE European Border and Coast Guards (Frontex) can do more to cushion the impact of the migration crisis in the Canary Islands, but to do so it needs a formal request for help from the government of Pedro Sanchezwhich has not yet arrived. This is the message that Frontex Executive Director Hans Leijtens delivered this Wednesday during a speech at the European Parliament.
Leijtens – who recently visited Madrid and the islands to address the crisis – admitted that The situation in the Canary Islands is “very worrying” due to the “sharp increase” in irregular arrivals, which he said had a “construction”. According to Frontex data, Migratory pressure on the islands has increased by 154% during the first 7 months of the year. A figure that contrasts with the 40% drop recorded across the European Union as a whole.
Currently, the European Border and Coast Guard It already has 60 soldiers deployed in the Canary Islandswho assist local authorities with “key tasks” such as registering and fingerprinting migrants, as well as providing translation services and conducting interviews with migrants.
[Clavijo lleva al Parlamento Europeo la “emergencia” migratoria en Canarias: Frontex pide intervenir]
However, the Frontex director insisted that The agency is fully prepared to provide further supportwhile adding that any new deployment or increased participation depends on formal requests from the Spanish government. As part of the regular planning procedure for its operations for the coming year, the European Border and Coast Guard now awaits Spain’s requests for 2025.
“I hope we are allowed and obliged to provide this support.which is really very necessary. I have seen it with my own eyes: I have visited reception centres, I have been to the coast, I have spoken with the Civil Guard. I am fully aware of this. But everything starts with a request from the Spanish government. If this is missing, I cannot support Spain,” Leijtens said in response to a question from the PP MEP. Juan Ignacio Zoïdo.
In his speech, Zoido criticized the Sánchez government precisely for not asking Frontex for more help. “Despite multiple warnings, The Spanish government has not put in place the necessary means to avoid the crisis and now it intends to unload its responsibility onto the autonomous community of the Canary Islands,” he denounced. According to him, the situation in the islands is “unsustainable” and there is “immense concern.”
For his part, the director of Frontex also admitted that, unlike Spain, cannot intervene on the coasts of the countries of origin and transit (like Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia) because lack of legal basis for that.
“From what I heard in Madrid and the Canary Islands, I understand that the main objective at the moment is to work with the countries of origin and transit. But in this area we are quite limited due to the lack of a legal framework, that is, an agreement with Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia. We are trying to find not loopholes, because that seems illegal, but ways to contribute to it,” he stressed.
The Frontex director also demanded from the member states and the European Parliament a greater supply of surveillance equipment, drones, planes and helicopters. After listening to him, the leader of the PP in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserratannounced that he would ask to include the migration crisis in the Canary Islands in one of the next plenary sessions of the European Parliament.
