The Government Council of the Canary Islands (Canary Islands Coalition and PP) agreed on Monday to ask the Council of Ministers to “fulfil its obligations” in the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, who “are its responsibility and are obliged to take care of them.” It should be remembered that the care of migrant minors is the responsibility of the autonomous communities, in this case the Government of the Canary Islands. This decision comes after the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands provisionally suspended the application of the protocol for the reception of migrant minors approved by the Regional Executive and through which it sought to lengthen the bureaucratic procedures prior to the reception of minors.
The spokesman for the Canary Islands Executive, Alfonso Cabello, explained in a press conference that, based on this requirement, the central executive has 30 days to present the allegations, and after this period, the legal services of the autonomous community will exercise legal actions and judicial procedures that they deem appropriate.
Cabello also said that the Canary Islands government would file separate appeals against the resolutions issued by the prosecutor’s office, under the main argument that the reception centres have their capacity “largely exceeded”.
Last Friday, the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands temporarily suspended the protocol imposed by the Government of the Canary Islands, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, considering that it was slowing down the entry of minors into the protection system. The Prosecutor’s Office had warned that the document violated the fundamental rights of minors. According to it, if the protocol is applied, unaccompanied migrant children (i.e. those who have travelled without an adult to take care of them) who have been rescued by the State at sea or have been intercepted upon arrival on the coast by the Civil Guard or the National Police “would be left without immediate attention and in a situation of helplessness”. The TSJC agreed with the Prosecutor’s Office, while Clavijo, after meeting with the State last Tuesday in Madrid, described the Prosecutor’s Office’s conclusions as “ridiculous”.
The protocol requires minors to go through a multitude of police procedures before entering the foster care system, which could slow down their protection. The brief that prosecutor María Farnés presented before the Administrative Contentious Chamber of the TSJC states that the measure violates the fundamental right to the principle of equality and moral integrity included in articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution and in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. “Its execution implies the absence of immediate attention to the situation of helplessness” in which minors arrive in the Archipelago, concludes the prosecution.
