Alberto Núñez Feijóo, national leader of the PP, and Fernando Clavijo, president of the government of the Canary Islands, signed an agreement on Tuesday to face the migration crisis that is hitting this territory and Ceuta with particular virulence. A pact that both assume as a starting point to negotiate with the central government a definitive solution to a problem that has taken root after “the inaction of the government.”
Faced with this lack of political will that they denounce, Feijóo and Clavijo will put on Pedro Sánchez’s table a document with nine concrete measures that address the problem of the distribution of minors, but also the entire immigration policy of the country, one of the necessary conditions of the PP to advance the possible reform of the immigration law.
“The central government has an obsession: to divide territories, institutions and people. Our goal is to unite and cooperate, and that is why I am here, to unite the Canary Islands with the rest of the autonomous communities and seek solutions,” Feijóo said before presenting the agreement and addressing the Executive to seal a state pact on this issue.
“This document seeks consensus, seeks to solve current and future problems. It proposes a roadmap so that the autonomous communities and the Government have a rapid cooperation formula in which each can fulfill its obligations. A firm, supportive and rigorous immigration policy and we hope that the Government adheres to this vision of the State that is reflected in this document,” he stressed.
Among the measures included in the document, to which ABC has had access, there are many that are already widely known, such as the request for a conference of presidents in which the agreement reached between the parties could be discussed and ratified. But it is not the only one.
The PP and the Canarian Coalition agree to call for a migratory emergency throughout the country, “so that the automías can urgently activate their contractual files and draw the EU’s attention to the crisis that Spain is going through” – says Feijóo – and they also demand increased border control, including, among other measures, more resources at the general immigration police station and the deployment of security forces in the countries of origin.
Another of the points agreed upon concerns the financial issue, one of those that broke the agreement on the reform of the immigration law last July. As requested then, the PP wants the government to agree on “financial sufficiency” with clear and transparent criteria. In this sense, it calls for the convening of a sectoral conference in which the distribution criteria would be agreed, which would guarantee that all the autonomies participate in this distribution and which would make available to them the means and infrastructure of the State to welcome immigrants.
Specifically, PP and CC establish a system by which the autonomies would take charge of the management and financing of this migratory phenomenon up to their 100% capacity; When it exceeds this threshold and does not reach 150%, management would be the responsibility of the communities and the resources would be provided by the State; Once this 150% is exceeded, all management and resources would return to the central government.
In addition, the signatories of the document, in which the mediation of the Vice-President of the Canary Islands Manuel Domínguez had special importance, focus on requesting help from the European Union – activating mechanisms such as Frontex and considering the transfer of minors to other Member States – as well as intensifying the work at the origin, so that “Spain does not become a refuge for human trafficking mafias”.
Fernando Clavijo insisted that this is a starting document and that it must be used to begin negotiations with the central government. “Today we have taken a giant step towards resolving the problem. What was signed today does not only bind the fourteen communities governed by the PP. “It must be a state pact,” said the president of the Canary Islands.
