The Government of the Canary Islands will now defend that the migrant minors who arrive on its shores by canoe or boat are in custody, not abandoned or helpless, and are the responsibility of the State, which is why it has asked the NGOs that manage its centers to provide shelters that do not accept anyone else without the express authorization of the community.
In announcing this decision, President Fernando Clavijo (CC) clarified that this does not mean that the Canary Islands ignore the minors in this humanitarian crisis, but that they will continue to help with their reception as long as they have resources, but as a way of “helping” the State in its competence.
At the press conference this Monday morning, after the Government Council, the spokesman for the regional government, Alfonso Cabello, explained that at the meeting of the Canary Islands Pact on Migration, on Monday afternoon, at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the legal measures that will be taken in this situation will be discussed.
According to Cabello’s account, NGOs have received “pressure” from the police and the juvenile prosecutor’s office to take charge of the children and adolescents who have arrived in El Hierro in recent days, even though, as the spokesperson recalled, the island has 150 places and already hosts 285 minors.
Asked about the type of pressure they have suffered, Cabello said that the National Police and the Prosecutor’s Office have asked NGOs to place the minors in already full facilities, knowing the real situation of the centers, which “can’t take it anymore.”
At this point, he added, the Canary Islands Executive considers that the protocols are not being respected, that they do not provide for the police to be able to direct minors directly to the NGOs that manage the regional reception centres, and that it is up to them to decide whether to take measures to protect the workers of these legal entities and of the autonomous community from possible legal risks.
The Government of the Canary Islands is once again attacking the central government after the failure of the pending admission of the reform of the Immigration Law in the Congress of Deputies thanks to the votes against the PP, Vox and Junts. However, far from blaming its government partner, the PP, for having dynamited this initiative for a better reception of minors, the Executive of the Canary Islands is continuing with the strategy that it already began on the very day of the vote (July 23): to blame the State.
Clavijo met this Monday afternoon, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, at the table of the Canary Islands Migration Pact, with the spokespersons of all the parties represented in the regional Parliament – including Vox, which has not signed this agreement and is not part of it – to inform you of what your Government Council approved this Monday.
This agreement renews the declaration of emergency in immigration matters (which allows the administration to make decisions with greater flexibility and speed than through ordinary procedures) and “promotes” as “absolute priority” the “agreement” on more reception centers and the hiring of more personnel for these tasks, but at the same time requires that the State comply with the established protocol before making available to them the new minors arriving in Cayuco.
Another of its points is “to inform the collaborating entities (the NGOs that manage their reception centers) that they do not welcome new migrant minors at the expense of this Autonomous Community unless there is prior communication of conformity or express authorization from the competent autonomous authorities.”
And, in addition, it authorizes its legal services to “initiate studies and, where appropriate, exercise inter-administrative and judicial actions, including criminal actions where appropriate, in favor of the defense of the rights of unaccompanied foreign minors, as well as the powers of this body.” autonomous community.
In statements to journalists, Clavijo explained that they were tired of hearing about this case for months “as a problem exclusively for the Canary Islands”, when, according to him, the reception of foreign minors is the responsibility of the State and that is how they will apply it from now on with your position.
The Canary Islands rely on the fact that the law attributes to the autonomous communities the guardianship of minors who find themselves in their territory in a situation of abandonment or helplessness, circumstances which, in their opinion, do not occur with children and adolescents from the Canary Islands. cayucos, to which he is affiliated, identified and placed in police custody upon arrival.
In fact, Clavijo stressed that the majority of these minors arrive on land rescued by a State service, referring to the Maritime Rescue, which disembarks them in the Canary Islands “because it could transfer them to Cadiz.”
All political parties in the community, including the PSOE and Nueva Canarias, in opposition, have expressed their support for the Clavijo government in the decision to demand compliance with the protocols and protect workers in the reception centres and collaborating NGOs from possible criminal consequences.
In turn, the president praised the support he has received so far in this matter from the Canarian socialists, to whom he assured that he had no reproach to make.
However, this unanimous support has nuances, since the PSOE spokesman, Sebastián Franquis, stressed that it is one thing to protect workers from legal consequences and another to engage in a legal battle with the State with which they do not agree.
“The solution to this problem is Clavijo on his right, in the PP, with which he governs, who voted against the reform of the immigration law,” he said. And the spokesman for the NC, Luis Campos, criticized the fact that, this time, the government of the Canary Islands has taken a decision without first discussing it with the signatories of the Migration Pact.
For his part, CC deputy José Miguel Barragán indicated that he refuses to believe that, despite the “anger” that the issue of immigration arouses in the national political debate, no one in the main parties of the country is already looking for avenues of agreement to carry out a reform of the law.
In this regard, PP MP Luz Reverón indicated that her party is willing to support the legislative measures if the conditions she has set from the beginning are met: that the State guarantees funding for reception, that a migratory emergency is declared for all of Spain, that a Conference of Regional Presidents is convened to address this issue and that all territories are involved in this effort, without exception.
