The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, regretted that after the preventive suspension of the protocol for the reception of unaccompanied migrant minors, “unfortunately, today, the minors are being recovered with fewer guarantees than beforewhich was our concern.
“We have found support from His Holiness the Pope and the European Union,” while “unfortunately, we do not find neither understanding nor collaboration of state administration, something that I hope will change throughout this week.
He said that the precautionary measure “gave us three days to be able to argue” on the objective of this document which “seeks that if the minor is susceptible, asylum policy that was proposed, that there was a interpreter in their language, that they were always asked if they had close relatives… in short, protective measures that were not applied and which, in our opinion, certainly leave the minor more unprotected“.
He assured that “the situation is extreme”, with 143 migrant minors and more than 1,000 adults in just 24 hours, so that “the resources of the rescue services, state and security bodies, the regional police, all of them, are totally saturated”.
He reiterated the need for “this meeting point to provide a response to the situation we are experiencing” because from now on “they will listen to us and we will discuss the why” of the protocol, in compliance with international treaties, international regulations and Spanish regulations.
“He will know, they were in state custody”
Regarding the complaint of the Government Delegate in the Canary Islands regarding the migrant minors who slept last night in the Temporary Reception Centre for Foreigners (CATE) in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, he said “he will know, because were in their custodyunder the care and custody of the State. The Canarian president stressed that “I can guarantee that upon their arrival in the autonomous community they will be cared for scrupulously and affectionately, even though we have all the centers saturated, some up to 300% of its capacity”.
In some resources, he said, “they sleep on the floor because there is no physical space”, and that is why “we say, to the government delegate, to the prosecutor’s office, to Europe, to everyone, that it is not reasonable because “the Canary Islands alone bear all the migratory pressure from Africa and that is what is happening”.
Throughout this year, he assured, “the State has not helped us with a single euro nor has it found the spaces to be able to coordinate and take care of the minor with dignitywhich is your responsibility.
On the islands, “we do it with the resources we have, as best we can”, but “not only can we not do more, but we cannot guarantee the safety conditions of these minors with the state of saturation of resources”.
