Justice sees no crime in the overcrowding of migrants on the Arguineguín pier, although it criticizes the "regrettable" conditions

The Provincial Court of Las Palmas has definitively shelved the complaint filed by the Mogán City Council regarding the camp set up by the Government of Spain at the Arguineguín wharf (municipality of Mogán, in Gran Canaria), a place where more than 2,500 immigrants. The Sixth Section of the Provincial Court has described the conditions as "terrible" and "regrettable", but in a judicial order its court maintains, however, that "this shortage of conditions" does not respond "to a voluntary action of the administrative authorities ”, but is due “to a situation of lack of resources given the number of immigrants who faced the journey”. The decision rules out a crime of degrading treatment or illegal detention. The resolution is final, so it does not admit any appeal.

"The shortcomings of the camp", explains the order dated December 15 and advanced by the EFE agency, "therefore, they did not obey an arbitrary and manifest will to violate the rights of immigrants."

Thus, "attempts were made to offer shelter, protection and assistance, insufficient if you will, but there was no other alternative, it was not possible to foresee such a massive arrival, it was not possible to offer another space."

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The judge sees no crime in the conditions of migrants in Arguineguín, although she labels them "deplorable"

The Canarian justice already dismissed in November 2020 this complaint filed by the mayor Onalia Bueno, of Citizens for Change. The justice already considered "deplorable" the conditions in which the immigrants landed on the dock were found. However, the judge who studied the complaint decided to file it, considering that in the management of this migratory crisis no crime has occurred. The court reopened the proceedings in February. In the new order, the justice insists again that the conditions were "regrettable", "to use a discreet adjective", but they did not commit the crime of degrading treatment or illegal detention.

The magistrates have recalled that, in November 2020 alone, 6,357 immigrants arrived in Arguineguín, in the midst of a pandemic situation “that forced a prior health check” of all of them, with “lack of resources” to house them.

The improvised camp on the fishing dock was closed at the end of November 2020, after the Ombudsman sent a request to the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to denounce its conditions and demand that the obligations of dignified reception be fulfilled. that are provided by law.

At the end of November, the Government proceeded to close it down after having initiated the so-called Canary Islands Plan, which contemplated the installation of stable camps in various areas of the islands.

The Arguineguín pier, in November 2020. Quique Curbelo (EFE)

In the order, the court maintains that the people who were in Arguineguín could be considered "lucky", given that "not only did they survive a painful journey that has claimed multiple lives, and what is worse, there is the certainty that they were will continue to charge, but they also received assistance both from the Red Cross, and later from the State by offering accommodation solutions in different hotels, a solution that also generated controversy.

“In any case”, concludes the rapporteur of the order, Carlos Vielba, “it seems possible to get away from the idea that this island wants to be converted into a new Lesbos”, he adds, in response to a comparison that not only established several NGOs, but also the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, which denounced that the Interior and the EU had transformed the island into "a prison" so that immigrants would not reach the continent.

In the case of Arguineguín, the room recalls, in 2020 the returns of immigrants who arrived irregularly "were impossible", because the borders were closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, so "they proceeded to put in formal freedom, not effective”, of those who arrived by boat.