SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 3 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The spokesman for the Government of the Canary Islands, Julio Pérez, warned this Thursday that the facilities set up to welcome unaccompanied migrant minors, both ordinary and extraordinary, are “overwhelmed.”
In a press conference to give an account of the agreements of the Governing Council, he indicated that the Canary Islands-State bilateral commission will be held at the end of February and the Executive is going to request that the migratory crisis be included on the agenda.
The objective, he commented, is that both the central government, as well as the EU and the autonomous communities, “have more involvement” with the migratory flow that reaches the Canary Islands, given that although the archipelago is a “border territory”, it cannot absorb alone the attention
However, he has pointed out that the Canary Islands “will continue to attend to minors” –the general director of Minors, Iratxe Serrano, warned these days that they will remain in the police station due to lack of capacity– because it is a “legal and moral obligation” but understands that “other administrations must co-participate”.
Along these lines, he has indicated that there must be “some legislative change” given that the voluntary system has not worked, since there are more than 2,800 minors on the islands and only a little over 200 have been transferred. “If the voluntary system does not work, there will be to think about the forced”, he commented.
Pérez has admitted a “correction” with the management of adult migrants, since of the more than 20,000 who arrived last year, only a little more than 3,000 remain in the archipelago, while he has assessed that up to 40% of the boats do not They arrive from the African coast.
