The spokesperson for the Government of the Canary Islands, Alfonso Cabello, announced this Monday that the Regional Executive would file an appeal for reconsideration before the Contentious Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) after having excluded the preventive suspension of the protocol. for migrant minors in the community.
In the press conference that followed the meeting of the Government Council, Cabello defended that what the protocol does for migrant minors “is taking a step forward” because the Regional Executive “what it has always sought” is to “defend interests and rights”. minors who are in the Canary Islands. The TSJC, however, supported the arguments of the prosecution, which considered that the application of the protocol could lead to the crime of abandonment and could even be unconstitutional because it endangers the fundamental rights of minors.
Cabello stressed that the order of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands “does not enter into a debate on the merits, does not anticipate the decision on the legality” of the protocol nor “anticipates its decision on its normative character », emphasizing that it “limits itself” to the question of precautionary measures from the point of view of the interests of the minor.
On the other hand, he stressed, “this does not call into question a reality which is that the initiative and the aim of its reasoning address the migratory phenomenon and the emergency” that the archipelago is experiencing, even if the TSJC indicates that “the government of the Canaries is right when it invokes the degree of saturation of the resources at its disposal and certainly also when it opposes the way in which the delivery of foreign minors is carried out in view of the documents provided.
He adds that the order reflects that there have been “two improvements in the way in which minors are delivered” to the Canary Islands, one that “is carried out in front of a public official” and another that “the examination is better done.” » . However, Cabello did not highlight the aspects in which the TSJC order agreed with the prosecution in considering that the Canary Islands added bureaucratic procedures before proceeding with the reception of minors, taking into account that this reception takes place in an emergency or emergency situation. . This is why the TSJC accepted the precautionary measures requested by the prosecution. And not only that, but he also supported the request of an NGO to suspend the application of orders issued by the Canary Islands government so that NGO staff do not agree to care for a migrant minor without prior authorization from the competent authority. Both the protocol and this express order were suspended by Justice, and the first appeal presented by the Canarian government was rejected this Monday.
Cabello, however, insisted on the need to have a “legal debate” on improving procedures and on a political level on how to improve the care of minors in the current emergency situation in the archipelago to guarantee their rights.
He also defended that the way to guarantee the rights of minors “does not simply lie in keeping a list of names without photographs, without fingerprints, in which everyone is assigned the same date of birth, etc.” but rather it is about “ensuring the best way to do it”.
European funds
On the other hand, he stressed that they are “waiting” for the Spanish Government to request, to whom it corresponds, the activation of the specific funds that the European Commission has offered to the Canary Islands to deal with the current migratory situation.
All this, he noted, after the President of the European Union (EU) and the Acting Vice-President of the EU “revealed the willingness and availability by the European Commission of specific funds” for to be able to face the “humanitarian drama”. in the Canary Islands.
Amendment to immigration law
On the other hand, Cabello indicated that the Canaries also continue to “expect” further progress in the coming days in the contacts that “continued to exist to be able to articulate this parliamentary support” between the Popular Party and the People’s Party. Socialist Party to be able to modify article 35 of the Immigration Law, in order to “better” serve migrant minors who are in the Canary Islands, which currently have around 5,500 minors distributed in 81 open resources.
It is in this sense, he said, that the Canaries continue to work in search of allies, “not only at the state level, but at the international level”, since the president of the Canaries, Fernando Clavijo is traveling to Malta this Monday, where he will participate in the Summit of the Outermost Regions (ORP) and European Maritime Regions.
He added that it will be during this meeting where “it will be possible to make clear and understand” by Clavijo, to more than 100 allied territories of the Canary Islands, what is the situation that is being experienced, while in the archipelago we are working . “on an idea: to establish that when the European Union, the new college of commissioners, will articulate policies, in the executive part of EU policies, the migratory drama that we are experiencing in the Canary Islands and on this route Atlantic, stands out as one of the first challenges.
As part of the agenda that the President of the Canary Islands Government is developing at the international level, he will also meet this Tuesday in Geneva with representatives of the UNHCR and UNICEF, two international organizations “focused on the defense of people’s rights” . children and girls from all over the world, in order to continue to “focus on the situation of migrant minors, not only in the Canary Islands but also in the European Union as a whole”.
