The Council of State has given the government the green light to submit to the Constitutional Court the protocol for the reception of migrant minors, which adds a series of procedures prior to their reception that, in practice, delay the entry of foreign children and minors into reception centres. The opinion of the advisory body confirms that the decree exceeds regional competences and does not comply with the legislation on the protection of minors, which is why the Council of Ministers has agreed to challenge the regional regulations before the Constitutional Court.
The protocol involves “a violation of the constitutional order, because it is not limited to the scope of autonomous jurisdiction and contains a violation” of rights that can contribute to leaving minors in a situation of abandonment, “said the head of territorial policy, Ángel Victor Torres, in the round after the Council of Ministers. The minister took note of some conclusions of the opinion of the Council of State to explain that he considers that public agencies for the protection of minors “are obliged to take charge of minors from the moment they are located and entered”, contrary to what is provided for. Canarian protocol that defended that these were in the custody of the security forces and, therefore, were not in a situation of helplessness.
The Canary Islands decree also required the identification and determination of the age of minors before being received in regional reception centres. In this regard, the advisory body stresses that “the difficulties in identifying and determining age and the insufficiency or saturation of places in the autonomous communities are not circumstances that the Immigration Law allows to justify a possible refusal by the autonomous governments to receive minors or delay the immediate attention they may need.
Last week, the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) urgently suspended the protocol imposed by the regional government for the reception of unaccompanied minors. The Administrative Contentious Chamber accepted the very precautionary measures requested in an appeal by the High Prosecutor’s Office of the Canary Islands “due to the conjunction of circumstances of particular urgency” and “without entering into the substance of the issue regarding the adjustment to the legality of the protocol.
After the approval of the Canary Islands Protocol, the Canary Islands High Prosecutor’s Office had already warned the Government of the Canary Islands that it would not allow migrant minors arriving in the Islands to not be received in the care centres. The Public Prosecutor’s Office questioned the assumption on which the decree is based, which seeks to make the State responsible at its own expense for migrant minors, for which the Canary Islands affirm that these children and adolescents, even if they are alone, are not in a situation of helplessness, since they are guarded by agents of the National Police upon their arrival on the coast.
