The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo (CC), has proposed this Monday to his Government Council to open “a legal debate” with the State for the “negligence of duties” that he believes it practices in immigration matters and for the “lack of responses” to his request to share the care of minors. It should be remembered that the Canarian Executive and the central Government agreed to modify the Immigration Law so that the reception of minors would involve all communities, but when this proposal reached the Congress of Deputies it was rejected by the PP, which governs the islands together with Coalición Canaria. Despite this, the reproaches of Coalición Canaria have been directed since that day towards the central Government and not towards its political partner. This was reminded by the Minister of Territorial Policy and former Canarian President Ángel Víctor Torres, after learning of Clavijo’s threat.
“In the case of the Canary Islands, they are dereliction of duty. I don’t know if the Spanish Government is clear about this or not. I am clear that the Spanish Government is abandoning the Canary Islands and that is something that must be conveyed,” Clavijo said in an interview on Canarias Radio, the regional public broadcaster, prior to the meeting of the Government Council.
The leader of the Canary Islands Coalition then denounced that some “confuse loyalty, understanding and putting the interests of the minor above all else with weakness, and they are wrong.”
For this reason, he considered that the time had come to take legal measures – a step that, before the summer, he had already warned that he was willing to take – and he said he was confident that the decisions they adopt in this regard would have the support of the Canary Pact for Migration, a forum that is meeting this afternoon and in which all the parliamentary forces of the islands participate, except Vox. This Canary Pact, in which the PP is included, already supported the proposal to modify the Immigration Law, but that did not prevent that party from voting against it in Congress.
The President of the Canary Islands has referred to the thousands of people who have arrived on the islands in recent weeks, fulfilling something that had been warned and that “was not difficult to see”: that it was foreseeable that in the second half of the year the arrivals were going to intensify, as has happened in recent years. And that means, he has stressed, that the Canary Islands will have to face between now and the end of the year “an emergency on top of another emergency”, with all its juvenile centres already “oversaturated” and several of them “above 200%” of their capacity.
He also denounced that this weekend, with the constant arrival of cayucos to El Hierro, situations have occurred that he rejects.
“This weekend has been a turning point, with pressure and threats from the State to NGOs to take in minors without being able to guarantee them the proper care. Today in the Government Council we are going to debate this matter and make decisions. Obviously, if there is no loyalty and commitment, the Government of the Canary Islands will be put in its place,” he announced.
Alleged pressure on NGOs
Hours later, at the press conference following the Government Council, the regional spokesman, Alfonso Cabello, insisted that it will be this afternoon when the legal actions that could be taken will be discussed, and he assured that the NGOs that work in the reception of migrant minors received this weekend “pressure” from the Police and the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office to take charge of the children and adolescents who arrived in El Hierro, although, as the spokesman recalled, this island has 150 places and already welcomes 285 minors.
“There has been a deep debate in the Governing Council on a series of legal measures to be adopted over the next few days, the details of which will be known after we meet with the political groups,” insisted Cabello, who assured that the meeting will produce “a roadmap for the coming weeks.”
Asked about what kind of pressure they had received, Cabello said that the National Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office required the NGOs to place the minors in infrastructures that were already full, knowing the real situation of the centres, which “cannot cope any more.” It should be remembered that the care of migrant minors is the responsibility of the autonomous communities and that the Canarian Government itself has been announcing for months that the arrivals would increase after the summer, when the weather conditions improve. But despite this, it has not planned or prepared more reception infrastructures, beyond installing tents on the docks to send these children and adolescents who arrive on the Islands alone, without any family members. This measure, that of installing tents, was already rejected in July by the Immigration Prosecutor’s Office.
“When you have a network that can accommodate 150 and you have 285, you are talking about a very tense and complex situation. When there are still around 70 minors arriving on top of that situation, referrals must be made to a network that cannot bear any more pressure,” Cabello insisted.
The spokesman accused the Spanish Government and the European Union of “neglecting their duties” with regard to the Canary Islands, which in his opinion has been “more bloody than ever in recent days” and said that when the European institutions focused on the Mediterranean route and Lampedusa (Italy), arrivals were reduced by 65%.
“When decisions are made by the EU, a situation can be reversed,” insisted Cabello, who complained that in four years the rest of the autonomous communities have taken in fewer minors, around 500, than those who arrived in the Canary Islands in the month of August alone (571).
Given these figures, the autonomous community, he insisted, has the capacity to accommodate 4,339 minors, although there are currently 5,283, with “944 minors overcrowding the reception network in the 80 centres in the Canary Islands”. Not a word for his government partner, the PP, which not only rejected the reform of the Immigration Law, but also suspended visits to the overflowing reception facilities when the Sectoral Conference on Children was held at the beginning of July in Tenerife, and whose regional leaders have placed numerous obstacles to the distribution of minors.
Trip to Ceuta
Alfonso Cabello also spoke of a 120% increase in the number of migrants who have reached the Canary Islands coasts compared to the same period last year, and stressed that the Canarian president, Fernando Clavijo, will travel to Ceuta to draw up a joint roadmap with the autonomous city, which is also managing a migratory increase.
For the Canary Islands Government, it is up to the Government of Spain to respond to this situation, especially after having “warned” that the flow would increase at this time, as has been historically demonstrated.
“It is the PSOE at a national level who must make the move and take government action,” stressed Cabello, who concluded that the Canarian Government “at some point” “has to take a stand” in the face of a situation, he said, that “has burned” the Spanish Government. It should be remembered, once again, that the competence on this matter is regional.
The Vice President of the Canarian Government, Manuel Domínguez (PP), has denied that his party is “not very cooperative” despite not having supported the processing of the reform of the Immigration Law agreed between its partner, Coalición Canaria, and the PSOE in the Congress of Deputies.
“The PP had a series of proposals, which were reduced and adapted to the main needs of the Canary Islands. With 50 million we could not cover the cost of minors in care, for example. The PP’s requests are neither a whim nor are they impossible to meet,” Domínguez responded.
The Government responds
The Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, has responded to the President of the Canary Islands that the person who voted against the reform of the Immigration Law in Congress was his partner in the regional government, the PP.
This was stated by the former Canarian president in an interview on RNE, in which he criticised Clavijo for “trying to protect his partner” by attacking the Government, instead of coming out “in defence of the interests of the Canary Islands” by asking the Popular Party to support the reform of the Immigration Law in the Lower House.
“I remind President Clavijo that the one who voted against on July 23 was the Popular Party, therefore, his partner in the Canary Islands. I believe that he is trying to protect his partner by attacking the Government, when he should be defending the interests of the Canary Islands,” Torres said, before regretting the decision of the Canarian president, with whom he communicates “constantly, almost daily” regarding the arrival of migrants to the islands.
Torres admitted that the situation in the Canary Islands is “desperate” and requires a solution, although he rejected the idea that the central government has “turned its back” on the autonomous community. “What do you mean the State has left it alone? If anyone has left the Canary Islands alone on 23 July it was the Popular Party,” he concluded.
Asked if he is open to reaching an agreement with Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party to endorse the reform of the Immigration Law, Torres has assured that they will continue to “reach out to them” and that they have continued to maintain contacts during the month of August. The Government’s position, in his opinion, is “a regulatory change” to provide a solution, which “is not compatible” when “there are PP leaders” who “separate good migrants from bad ones.”
Along the same lines, the socialist leader has accused the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of assuming the theses of the “far right” against immigration. “There is a positioning where the far right has reached the institutions and some want to copy their messages,” he added.
Torres has maintained that, although it was thought that this message of “alarm facing the sea” was already outdated and that it was “an exclusive message of the far right”, it is being assumed by leaders of the Popular Party.
Torres has attacked the “far right” that spreads “hoaxes” seeking, he believes, to get citizens to act against immigrants with “absolutely unfair messages”. “I fear that lies will overcome reality,” he said.
“There is a clearly pro-immigration approach and there are some who want to take advantage of it by spreading rumours and making citizens try to act against them with their messages,” warned the minister, assuring that a good example of this has been the case of the child murdered in the Toledo town of Mocejón this August.
In this regard, he has expressed his “fear” that “the hoax will become credible” and become part of society’s thinking. For this reason, he has appealed directly to the media, political leaders and their parties so that “citizens are not deceived.” “Let us not manipulate things, let us not increase feelings against other people for electoral gain,” he added.
He explained that, in his opinion, unaccompanied minors who reach the Canary Islands are not “potential criminals” since crime is “something that goes on in sick minds” and is not caused by the traumas they may have suffered on their way to Spain.
Source: www.eldiario.es
