The Canary Islands have always asked the Spanish government be in negotiations with the countries of the African Atlantic coast“If there is something that is not going to change, with or without migration crises, it is geography,” a member of the island’s executive told this newspaper. “And we want the best relations with our neighbors.”
For good neighborliness, for security, for solidarity and to alleviate emergencies like the current one.
And the Canary Islands have finally achieved this. Fernando Clavijo ripped off Pedro Sanchez Last Friday, during his first scheduled meeting in six years, the confirmation that during his tour of Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal, a representative of the island’s Executive will attend the meetings. The elected official is the Director General of Relations with Africa, Luis Padilla.
During these meetings, the Spanish president will sign several agreements on “circular migration.” Taking advantage of a pilot program carried out in Senegal, to which Moncloa sources attribute “a great success”In recent weeks, an agreement has been reached with Mauritania and Gambia to launch similar projects in their territories.
It is about identify needs of labor of Spanish companies, train specifically of these skills and their origin to people wishing to migrate, and to grant them a temporary work permit for each campaign, with the commitment of return to your home country before each end of contract.
The model is already in force in five Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador And Uruguay) and with MoroccoBut Moncloa’s idea is to export it to West Africa, the main source of migrants in the current crisis, which has already lasted a year and a half.
The current emergency figures are alarming: a 126% increase in irregular arrivals so far this year. The most pessimistic forecasts speak of a maximum 80,000 landed in the Canary Islandsat this rate, only in 2024.
But the plan is too small. The pilot program carried out In Senegal, in 2023, it only trained 141 people. And even if it will be strengthened, it is a very long-term measure that does nothing to address the current emergency.
Furthermore, the total of circular migrants captured in the six countries mentioned above have reached just over 17,000 people last year.
Moreover, the reality is that this pilot experiment, under the name of Continentis not an initiative of the Spanish government, but of the Canary Islands. The advisor was referring to her. Candelaria Delgado in his recent interview with EL ESPAÑOL.
Political controversy
But why has the crisis now become a political controversy?
First of all, because the last autonomous legislature of the Canary Islands was governed by a socialist, Angel Victor Torresand in Moncloa too. Today, Sánchez has saved Torres as Minister of Territorial Apolitics and as main contact for the Government on immigration issues.
This is for example his successor (and predecessor) in the Canary Islands, the aforementioned Clavijo. And the relationship between the two is purely professional.
This is why the previous claims did not reach the media as they do today. It was not necessary, due to the understanding between the two socialist leaders and because the Canary Islands Executive did not raise its voice in the face of Sánchez’s vicissitudes with the regime of Mohamed VI.
Nor did it attract attention when the Mauritanian government’s friction over the agreement joint patrols and returnsin force since 2007.
That year, the government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Yes, he responded to the call canoe crisis from the previous year, by inventing a model of collaboration and cooperation on the ground with the countries of origin and transit which have stopped the crossings. The agreement with Mauritania was such a success which has served as a model for others in Spain and for the migration policy of the European Commission, in its pacts with Türkiye, Libya, Tunisia and other points of human trafficking.
But the Moroccan example, according to sources on the ground, has inspired Nouakchott, which has not respected the return agreements for a long time, and does not accept migrants leaving its shores who are not its nationals…taking into account that about 50% of those who arrive in the Canary Islands leave their ports and that the vast majority are not Mauritanian, in the end, the transfers to avoid the collapse of the islands are made… towards the peninsula.
With which, The mafias achieve their goal. And the cycle begins again.
Incentives and programs
It is true, government and cooperation sources confirm, that the wars which surround the region, the jihadist pressure in the Sahel, the abandonment of France -which was replaced by Russian mercenaries-, and the continuing coups in the neighborhood have emboldened human traffickers.
And even if Spain is not reinforced with more patrol boats or denies sending navy to deter traffickersMauritania, Senegal and Gambia see the benefit of demanding more aid from the only European country that, in recent years, has had “a positive agenda” with them.
“These countries are under unbearable pressure,” according to Moncloa sources. And it’s true. Because the data is indisputable, but it fluctuates Between 100,000 and 350,000 migrants on the beach waiting their turn on the Africa-Atlantic coast.
For this reason, programs like the one in Senegal, now exported to its neighbors with the Sánchez tour, are a drop in the ocean of illegal immigration. Moncloa admits that they should be combined with more cooperation for development, more aid to institutionalizationmore programs human rights…and others, like the one carried by Hispasat, also on board Sánchez’s plane.
The Minister of Inclusion will attend the tour, Elma SaizOn the last day, the Minister of Economy, Carlos Corpo, will join us, but he will also be there Pedro DucPresident of Hispasat. The Spanish company will sign a memorandum of understanding to improve the digitization in Senegal, with a program of rural connectivity which will itself generate short-term jobs and long-term opportunities.
The Spanish government is trying to strengthen its position as the region’s interlocutor within the European Union. It has the advantage of not having a colonial past in these countries that they stigmatize her, and with years of work. But in Moncloa, they know that Sánchez will have to Tighten the screws on your contacts regarding returns: They do not respect the agreements signed in the past and Spain has not managed to impose itself so far.
Last February, Sánchez visited Mauritania with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der LeyenFor example. And the pressure on NATO has already led the Alliance to create a new stable office to address the challenges on its southern flank.
However, no one should expect the wave of migration to stop with these actions. Despite the importance given to the President’s trip, the measures and agreements that will be implemented cannot (and do not intend to) achieve this goal. Even less so if the long term is not accompanied by short-term measures, such as Navy reinforcement on the high seas (which he ordered to the Defense in the years when there was no political controversy).
