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Last Tuesday, the Civil Guard opened an investigation into five people, workers at a reception center for unaccompanied migrant minors from the Canary Island of Lanzarote, for allegedly coercing and threatening five of the minors to commit different criminal acts. The armed institute maintains, in a note published this Thursday, that the objective of those investigated was to destabilize the daily organization of the center, supposedly due to an internal conflict they had with the management company, and they suspect that this is the cause of the numerous incidents — mattress fires, office robberies, thefts and threats—that have been committed at the facilities in recent months.
The agents learned of the events following a complaint filed at the Civil Guard Main Post in San Bartolomé. In it, an inmate at the La Santa center for unaccompanied minors claimed to be being coerced by four educational assistants to commit acts of vandalism and disobey the rules of the internal regime. “All this with the aim of destabilizing coexistence and sabotaging the work of the new management,” maintains the Civil Guard. That management had introduced changes that affected "conducts permitted to workers in the previous mandate", among which the note cites "abusive practices with minors, making use of center resources without control or supervision, as well as the delegation of powers far above their professional training.”
Those investigated, between 30 and 44 years old, threatened the minors by telling them that, if they did not carry out the criminal acts, they would arbitrarily limit their going out on the street, their leisure activities and the collection of weekly pay. Furthermore, they made them believe that they could delay the processing of their legal residence documentation in Spain if they did not comply with their demands, according to the thesis of the Civil Guard.
The La Santa reception center is managed by the Siglo XXI Foundation, an organization that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office accuses of diverting public funds. In its letter, the public ministry maintains that the directors of the foundation spent part of the 12.5 million that it received from the State to pay for nights in four-star hotels, pills for erectile dysfunction and facial care of more than 1,500 euros. Siglo XXI has been in the news for several more cases: last November, twelve migrant minors reported mistreatment and touching in another device of this organization in Gran Canaria. The matter is under investigation.
This same foundation was also responsible for the reception facility in the Puerto Bello apartments, in Puerto Rico (southeast of Gran Canaria). Its inmates reported humiliating treatment in the facilities, a place that "did not meet optimal conditions for residence, nor are the educational staff qualified or prepared to care for minors," according to the complaint filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. That device was closed in June 2021. A year later, the Prosecutor's Office filed a complaint against those responsible for family abandonment, omission of the duty to prosecute crimes and minor injuries. EL PAÍS has tried to contact the Siglo XXI Foundation, without success.
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The Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families of the Government of the Canary Islands, Candelaria Delgado (Canary Coalition), explained at the end of the year to this newspaper that, for now, the Executive does not plan to stop working with Siglo XXI until let the courts not rule. “Reports have been prepared and we are looking for alternatives for anticipation. But until there is a ruling, there is a contract in place that we have to honor.”
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