The president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, firmly opposed this Monday the proposal of the Ministry of Defense of use the Cristo Barracks and the Tabares Polvorínboth located in the municipality of La Laguna, to become reception centers for unaccompanied migrant minors.
“They are determined to turn Tenerife, La Laguna and the Canary Islands into a big refugee camp, and we refuse. We said that’s enough, that’s enough,” he stressed in an interview with ‘Radio Club Tenerife’.
“Tenerife says no, it’s not like that,” he stressed, pointing out that, for example, the powder magazine center is “demolished” and is not in a condition to house anyone. However, he clarified that even if they were in good condition, the municipality of La Laguna already houses “two large detention centers for migrants“in Las Raíces and Las Canteras.
In this sense, he stressed that La Laguna, Tenerife and the Canary Islands “have sufficiently demonstrated their solidarity” but that the capacity of the archipelago “is completely exceeded, it is not a question of space.”
According to him, the fact that the Defense offered these spaces “means that they have not understood anything, that they have not understood anything”, they don’t understand the problem“It’s not about having more space, it’s about having no more hands, non-governmental organizations are completely overwhelmed.”
The president of Tenerife insisted that the central government “has abandoned the Canary Islands” and has been “waiting for months” for the amendment of the immigration law for a distribution of minors throughout Spain “in solidarity and with sufficient economic resources for the rest of the autonomous communities”