The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, traveled to the island of El Hierro this Monday after the new surge in arrivals that has been registered with the arrival of the new year, a situation that he has not hesitated to describe as “unsustainable.”
It has been, in his words on the island, “a terrible weekend, a terrible month of January and a terrible end of the year.”
The nationalist leader even attended the disembarkation of a canoe at the La Restinga dock, where he highlighted that “dialogue is important, institutional loyalty is an important migratory situation after the constant arrivals of irregular vessels to the island so far this year.” anus.
“The situation is unsustainable with what we have experienced these weeks on the island of El Hierro,” he declared to the media.
“What we have experienced this January is unsustainable, with more than 6,000 people who have arrived on our shores and it is unsustainable with unaccompanied minors, who already exceed 5,500.”
In the first 15 days of the year, 3,109 people arrived on the islands, 838% more than in the same period of 2023, according to official figures from the Ministry of the Interior.
The pace has not decreased in the following two weeks.
During the weekend alone, the Canary Islands have assisted 1,966 migrants who reached the islands aboard 26 precarious boats, among them 311 minors and 104 women, according to the assessment carried out by the emergency teams and to which Efe has had access.
Clavijo has complained in El Hierro that it must be the European Union that must carry out the cooperation, development and collaboration agreements with the "emitting" countries of migrants, but in the meantime, he said, this phenomenon must be managed by the autonomous community “and this requires means,” he insisted.
“It is not fair,” added Clavijo, that the Canary Islands must “endure the pressure alone.”
The president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo (fifth from the left), during his visit to the La Restinga dock, in El Hierro, this Tuesday. Gelmert Finol (EFE)
He noted that the Government of the Canary Islands has already contacted the retired doctors association to address the availability of some professionals to move to El Hierro “and give respite to healthcare workers.”
He admitted the speed in the transfers of adults to the peninsula, but demands more.
"It is no longer just a matter of transferring adults, who have to be transferred quickly," he stated before putting on the table the difficulty of "guaranteeing the rights of these children."
“It seems that in the end we count numbers, that we talk about statistics and we forget that they are smaller;
They are children who could be our children, our grandchildren, our brothers.”
Guardianship minors
Currently, the Canary Islands care for 5,150 unaccompanied foreign children or adolescents in 70 reception centers.
In the month of January alone, 900 minors have arrived on the islands.
This Wednesday, the visit of the Minister of Children, Sira Rego, is scheduled, to whom the regional Executive will transfer the legislative modifications proposed by the autonomous community to provide a response to the reception of unaccompanied minors throughout the territory.
On Monday, Rego proposed increasing the allocation for the reception of minors by 15 million euros - from 20 to 35 million.
The Minister of Social Welfare of the Government of the Canary Islands, Candelaria Delgado, described the same day as “absolutely insufficient” what the Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, proposed this Monday, and she also does not consider the 10.5 million with which the State plans to provide an extra contingency fund.
“That's what we're spending in a month,” she said.
“We need a much more ambitious response to the challenge of caring for unaccompanied foreign minors, and that is what we are asking for,” she added.
The counselor has emphasized that these are “boys and girls with identity, with a face, with dreams, who we must protect and for whom we must seek a better future”, which, she said, involves “proper care.” .
In this sense, Clavijo had highlighted this Monday before the media that the Government of the Canary Islands has sent to the central Executive four possible legislative modifications of the minor law to enable the so-called mandatory solidarity of the remaining autonomous communities when accepting non-migrant minors. accompanied.
“We need concrete responses from the Government of Spain and a more determined response from the European Union,” Clavijo claimed regarding minors.
For now, he reiterated, “the only one that has made any move” is the Government of the Canary Islands, putting four legislative modifications on the table.
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