It has been two months since negotiations with the People’s Party failed because the government refused to ask for EU help. It’s been a month since Angel Victor Torres promised to write to the European Commission to do so, after remaining Miguel Tellado firm in his request. And it’s been two weeks since the minister sent the letter to the president Ursula von der Leyen.
Meanwhile, irregular arrivals to the Canary Islands doubled in less than a month, November promises to be the worst month of a record yearand Moncloa ultimately did not request resources from the EU.
In Torres’ letter to Brussels, to which this newspaper had access, the Minister of Pedro Sanchez It is limited to “sending information” to the president of the Community Executive on “the efforts made by the Spanish government”. In the four pages in which the letter is published, dated November 12 in Madrid, the only mention in this regard appears in the last paragraph:
“We must continue to collaborate and explore joint actions from the European Union and the Spanish government for what we are asking for. the help that is needed“Just three lines, in which it is not specified whether the Spanish executive considers it needs support or in what aspects.
For example, Frontex patrol boats on the coasts, agents of the Asylum office of the EU, distribution juvenile, economic funds emergency…
Torres committed end of October ask the European Union for the means it could provide to facilitate the exit from the “humanitarian emergency”as the presidents of the Canary Islands and Ceuta have already called the migration crisis, Fernando Clavijo And Juan Jesus Vivas. The two territories are experiencing the greatest pressure in their history linked to the arrival of people in an irregular situation.
It should be remembered that Tellado sent another email this Monday to Minister Torres, which EL ESPAÑOL was also able to access, regretting the “neglect of almost two months” by the government, since the parties have agreed on the conditions for resuming negotiations for the reform of article 35 of the immigration law.
In his letter, the PP spokesperson in Congress “deeply regretted to note that, despite the seriousness of the migratory situation in the Canary Islands and throughout the country, the fundamental commitments that linked the continuity of the negotiations since the 5 last October have not been fulfilled by your government” And he adds that having let so much time pass without taking a single step “Ha contributed to further aggravating an already untenable situation..
Record of calm
In fact, the arrival data held by the Canary Islands government confirms what had been predicted by its president Clavijo: the autumn months bring calm to the Atlantic. And with them, maritime traffic traditionally increases chartered by mafias from northwest Africa to the Canary Islands.
since the day November 1 to 24had arrived on the shores of the islands 6,079 irregular migrantsamong them, 809 unaccompanied minors (known as menas). The total data makes November the second worst month of the year, with only the first three weeks taken into account.
and the sum of menas already exceeds the figure of 7,000 boys and girls “crammed together”according to sources from the Regional Executive. Every day they arrived 20 new’Menas on average.
In fact, just last week they were 1,212 migrants arriving 19 boats in El Hierro (13), Tenerife (3), Lanzarote (2) and Gran Canaria.
The cayucos (17) and inflatable boats (2) came from Mauritania (15), Senegal (1) and Gambia (1). These are precisely the three countries that Pedro Sánchez visited during his African tour last August, in which he sent contradictory messages.
First, it encouraged the arrival of new migrants in Spain by offer 250,000 jobs a year for them one day. He then called on sending countries to accept “forced returns”. And finally, he ended his last step with a speech on the benefits of “facilitate a safe, orderly and regular migration“.
“Increase, develop and rationalize”
This is the main message of Ángel Víctor Torres’ letter to Ursula von del Leyen. In his text, the minister explains four of the initiatives that the government encouraged not to put an end to irregular migration, but to encourage legal arrival of a greater number of foreigners in Spain.
One, “develop circular migration“. Second, “increase the number of sensitive professions procurement through the Collective Contract Management Program at Origin. Third, “expand the possibilities of regular migration with a gender perspective“. And fourth, “streamline procedures to continue to attract highly qualified personnel and publicize available offers in Spain.
Furthermore, Torres details “the imminent approval of a new Regulation for the development of the Organic Law on Immigration”, to regularize up to 900,000 people who are already living illegally in Spain.
It is the same rule as demands that the PP reforms its article 35 to “establish the obligatory nature of the principle of solidarity in the distribution of minors between all the Autonomous Communities”.
What the minister does not develop is that if his executive has devoted 1.2 million this year to take care of asylum seekers” and other migrants “who have arrived on our shores”, the Canary Islands have spent around 160 million of their own budget in 2024 to take care of “humanitarian emergency” on the islands.
Torres specifies that the government “made available” to the LACC “85 million euros who supplement their own dedicated childcare funds. » Although it is a number “manifestly insufficient”according to sources consulted in the autonomous governments concerned, the Canary Islands and Ceuta.
The Popular Party similarly supports, including the president, Alberto Nuñez Feijóosigned an agreement with the Canarian Clavijo in September, demanding that the Executive extend its support to all the miners it wishes to relocate throughout the peninsula.
“And not only for their welcome, but until boys and girls turn 18“, if he wants the support of the PP for an “urgent” solution and that Moncloa has insisted on promoting through legal reform, and not through decree, as the Canary Islands have been demanding since before the summer.
Background
These are the essential conditions that the People’s Party has imposed on the government: asking for help from the EU and financing the distribution of minors. According to Tellado, there has been no progress for almost two monthswhile every day new boats arrive with hundreds of migrants to the Canary Islands, and dozens of irregulars jump by land or sea to Ceuta.
Torres himself had publicly declared in Moncloa the day before that it was not “a logical solution” requested by the PP. “move” the “menas” in other EU countries “if the Autonomous Communities they govern refuse to welcome them”.
This declaration caused shock and anger in Genoa, after the agreement concluded before the summer on the distribution of minors, which even This cost him the breakup of several autonomous government coalitions with Vox.
It was therefore Tellado himself who announced that he was withdrawing from the negotiations until the government accepted the EU’s offer of aid. Finally, at the beginning of November, Torres seemed to give up and publicly announced that it would seek help from Brussels.
At the beginning of September, the CEO of Frontex, Hans Leijtensrevealed to the European Parliament that he had 3,000 “volunteer” agents be deployed to the Canary Islands, but that he could not act if “the Spanish government does not request it”.
The next month was his Ursula von der Leyen who, in writing, explained the same thing. The President of the Commission even offered her collaboration to activate the EU voluntary solidarity mechanism direct a large number of unaccompanied minors (called menas) to other Member States of the Union.
And as in the previous case, he was simply waiting for the Spanish government to make the request.
There will be a meeting
Tellado is now demanding that Moncloa take the plunge if it wants to have credibility on the other side of the table. negotiation which, in any case, he does not refuse to attend.
“We are referring specifically to two clear and concrete demands: the deployment of Frontex in the Canary Islands collaborate on border control and the activation of the European mechanism for the distribution of minors with other countries of the European Union,” he warns.
For the parliamentary spokesperson of the PP, Torres’ letter to Von der Leyen, “after almost two months of inaction, is a clear example of the apathy with which the government has handled this matter“.
And he wonders if it’s nothing other than “an attempt to dilute responsibilities and save time to the detriment of the most affected communities, notably the Canary Islands, which are experiencing unprecedented migratory pressure, without the necessary resources or support“.
