Migrants arriving in small boats held in a ship under police custody in Arrecife (Lanzarote), on October 19. Javier Bauluz
In the last three days, nine boats and inflatable boats have reached the coast of Lanzarote, and the ship that the Police uses to detain migrants for the first 72 hours is once again at the top. Some 400 people, several minors among them, were crowded this Monday in an enclosure without showers or ventilation and where, according to the agents who guard it, cockroaches scamper at night. Meanwhile, a camp that the European Commission has financed —at a cost of 2.1 million euros— and that the Ministry of the Interior set up behind the Arrecife police station, in the port area, has been gathering dust since October. Politics —in this case, the confrontation between administrations— has prevailed over logistics. Also to the dignity of migrants.
The Arrecife City Council, governed by the PP with the support of the PSOE and Somos-Nueva Canarias, made it clear in October that it would not allow the opening of the new camp if the Interior did not scrupulously comply with all the procedures.
And that, if it was opened against his criteria, he would dismantle it, according to its mayor, Astrid Pérez.
The declarations of the municipal authorities at that time projected a surreal scene: the local police, they maintained, would end up evicting the national police from the compound if the camp was finally opened.
Interior, despite everything, thought that it would win the fight, at a time when the boats were arriving nonstop (more than 4,800 people landed on the island in 2021), but it was not like that.
Today, sources from the department calculate that it will still have to wait at least three months to be able to open the premises.
Interior never saw the administrative obstacle.
The Port Authority, owner of the land, had temporarily ceded it to him and, although the file would still take months to resolve, both departments shared the opinion that the plot could immediately begin to be used as a camp.
For this reason, the ministry hastened to assemble the different modules of offices, bathrooms, showers and bedrooms.
The City Council, for its part, complained that they were not consulted and called the camp “illegal” and “unworthy”.
The local corporation argued, on the one hand, that the venue could not be used until the assignment file was resolved (a process that, they said, could take two years).
On the other, Civil Protection issued a report warning that the place was at risk, among other things, of flooding by sewage if it rained.
Last November, in fact, the mayor took advantage of the images of the flooded place to request its "urgent" dismantling.
“The ball is on the roof of the General Directorate of the Police, which is the one that has to process the center.
We cannot authorize it without the file of the transfer of the land”, insists a municipal spokesman.
While both administrations keep their pulse, the ship enabled by the police to identify new arrivals is again at its maximum occupancy levels.
Although the exterior of the premises remains quiet, some 400 people are crowded inside, with only five chemical toilets and a single tap with running water to clean themselves.
In October, a tent outside served police, doctors and lawyers to treat migrants, but that tent has since been removed.
Now, the reception and care are done in full sun.
Police are planning a hybrid solution of moving some of the modules, such as the shower module, from the blockaded camp to the ship, but have not done so yet.
“It is inexplicable that there is a place next to the police station, next to the port where the small boats disembark, and that we have people in a ship full of bugs in the middle of a highway,” criticize police sources.
“It is difficult to understand what is happening so that the camp does not open.”
“Conditions in there are deplorable.
It is a disaster”, complain these sources.
Added to this unhealthy situation reported by the agents are other problems that have been dragging on for months, such as deficiencies in legal assistance to migrants before the opening of their return files.
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