In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Canary Islands experienced one of the moments of greatest migratory tension, with arrivals by sea to its coasts increasing by almost 1,000% compared to the previous year (2019). This volume of arrivals in the midst of a global pandemic – more than 23,000, of which more than 18,000 in the last four months – placed the islands, once again, in a situation that the authorities at the time described as unsustainable. Without spaces to accommodate migrants, improvising solutions that did not meet the minimum conditions such as macro-camps, overcrowding… and hundreds of anti-immigration hoaxes circulating… While violations of the rights of those who arrived were continuous, Canarian society found itself circumventing the situation by betting, very mainly, on coexistence. This crisis has been compared to the one that took place in 2005 and 2006, the so-called “Cayuco crisis”. Two decades later, and after going through the regional and central governments of all parties, it has been confirmed once again – as the Ombudsman and NGOs had warned – that the Canary Islands are still not prepared, despite the fact that the arrival of migrants to the islands has been continuous throughout this period.
The structural deficiencies, in reception, care, coordination, emergency response mechanisms… were flagrant. The violations of the human rights of children, women, families and migrant men who arrived in the country are scandalous. In 2020, nothing had been corrected since the Cayucos crisis. Nothing essential and important, neither in the Canary Islands, nor in Melilla nor in Ceuta. Despite the recommendations, the reports of experts and NGOs, the institutional visits, the judicial resolutions, the proposals, the plans initiated, the strategies outlined… that is, having the solutions on the tables of the political offices (both government and opposition) and having at their disposal all the collaboration of children’s organizations and human rights organizations, improvisation and lack of coordination have prevailed, once again, and now again.
