The Canary Islands police have already received the directives from the regional government to begin implementing the new protocol for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors. The document you have accessed Canary Islands nowspecifies to the autonomous body all the procedures that must be carried out before children enter the foster care system, even though the prosecutor’s office and specialist organisations have warned that this measure could violate the fundamental rights of children.
To accept the reception of a foreign minor, the autonomous community first requires that the Police identify the child by means of a photograph, collect data on his origin and take his fingerprints. The minor must also be registered in the Registry of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors (RMENA) and must have an administrative resolution from the State for his individual assignment or location.
Once these steps have been taken, the Police must inform the regional administration, responsible for welcoming children arriving alone on the coasts of the Canary Islands, “of the existence of an unaccompanied migrant minor who is able to be handed over”. It is then that the regional government will check the availability of places “under the legally required guarantee conditions” so that the young person can be taken into care. Currently, the Archipelago protects 5,600 minors, some of whom are housed in precarious centres that do not meet the minimum conditions.
According to the new protocol, instead of transferring the minor directly to the reception center, the police authorities must hand over the young person to the autonomous community in the police stations before a police officer or before an authorized regional public agent.
The guidelines sent to the Canary Islands Police also specify that when the minor is received, officials must provide individualized documentation for each child that guarantees their correct identity and the circumstances in which they were found. The aim is to “assess their situation of risk or helplessness.” The Canary Islands High Prosecutor’s Office has already made itself heard on this point, which, in response to this protocol, stressed that “unaccompanied foreign minors are always helpless.” There is no situation of a minor in distress clearer than that of unaccompanied foreign minors.
The agents must also provide documentation of the interview carried out with each minor in the event that they request international protection and verify whether they have a family member in Spain or in the rest of the European Union who can accommodate them. In case of doubt about the minority of the person rescued, the decision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office must also be taken into account whether they should be taken into care in a centre for minors or in a resource for adults.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office also warned that all these procedures would slow down the entry of children into the foster care system and that they constituted a measure of discrimination against foreign minors. “The published protocol does not specify what the possible consequences are if the autonomous community does not exercise the powers attributed to it by law, such as the protection and immediate assistance to minors,” the Public Prosecutor’s Office stressed.
“Foreign minors are a group of people who present a particular level of vulnerability: because they are minors, because they are foreigners and because they are alone. This circumstance directly determines their helplessness and, consequently, the need, former legislaturethat the competent administration takes care of them through administrative protection mechanisms,” concluded the Attorney General of the Canary Islands, María Farnés.
