The migration crisis has definitely exploded in the Canary Islands. After receiving an average of more than 200 irregular migrants per day in the second half of August, the government of the islands approved this Monday to no longer accept into its custody a single minor who arrives on its shores. after being rescued by Maritime Rescue or the Police.
These are all.”100% of migrants who disembark on the islands, they do it after being rescued by Salvamar,” explain sources from the island’s Executive. The cayuco route from West Africa (Senegal, Sahara, Gambia and above all, Mauritania And Morocco) is extremely dangerous and the currents usually flow towards the island of El Hierro.
Sources from the rescue operations confirm to this newspaper that “either we save them, or the most normal thing is that find yourself adrift in the middle of the Atlantic“.
The island’s Executive, outraged by an incident that occurred this weekend, precisely on the island of El Hierro, issued this order to the nation “after more than a year during which we have warned of this humanitarian emergency without results”, as explained Fernando Clavijoin conversation with this newspaper.
The Canary Islands will not accept pressure from the Spanish government, its president explains. “During these months we have not started to argue, because in the event of a fire it does not matter where the firefighter comes from… but that is already the case. It’s an emergency about the emergency and we cannot accept this protocols are not followed“.
Fernando Clavijo chairs the meeting of the Government Council of the Canary Islands this Monday.
The Canarian government is protected by the Child Protection Act of 1996, more precisely in the regulation that develops it. Royal Decree 155/1996, of February 2, which approves the implementing regulations of Organic Law 7/1985This text imposes on the Autonomous Communities the custody and care of minors who are helpless, unprotected or abandoned.
The text expressly states, in its article 13, that “when they deal with minors in a situation of helplessness in the terms established by civil legislation, these They will be entrusted to the child protection services of the corresponding Autonomous Community.“
But according to Clavijo, “these miners are not helpless when the Salvamar ships rescue them… They are in the custody of the state“. And so they will continue, henceforth, while the number of boats, and the proportion of minerals In them, they keep rising.
Until 368 ships with 25,531 people on board have arrived in the islands since the beginning of the year, on September 1st.
“Among them, 10 or 15% are usually minors… but this week 2,000 people arrived, including more than 550 men.” explains Clavijo.
The president had already warned a few weeks ago that the worst was yet to come. And that the end of August and the three months of autumn are usually those of calm, and arrivals multiply. “Not only are they filled the worst prospects” adds the president of the island, “but they are accelerating“.
Tensions with the prosecution
This weekend, the Canary Islands have already begun to implement this policy. Faced with the arrival of eight minors on a boat bound for El Hierro, the island’s NGOs said they no longer knew where or how to take care of them.
“The prosecution has launched an obligation, at the request of the Ministry of the Interior“, to force our leaders and NGOs to accept them, but we can no longer,” explains the leader of the Canarian Coalition, “because there is no space, their rights cannot be guaranteed.”
According to Clavijo, if the government of Pedro Sánchez does not respond to their calls for help and, in addition, “he becomes scrupulous”yours too. This Monday, the Coalition Government Council (between CC and PP) met to approve the “scrupulous” application of the Regulation.
It was also approved, at the initiative of the president and the Minister of Social Protection, Candelaria Delgado, to “order the legal services” of the islands so that they “study all judicial options” to force the State to take care of unaccompanied foreign minors. “We will see if they are administrative, criminal or constitutional measures…or all at once.”
In the afternoon, Clavijo called the Canary Islands Migration Pactwhich brings together all the parties of the islands, with the exception of Vox, and from this meeting was born the agreement to support the two initiatives.”The political struggle is in Madridhere the opposition [socialista] is generous and collaborates with the island government,” Clavijo concludes.
