SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 20. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Deputy Minister for Foreign Action of the Government of the Canary Islands, Juan Rafael Zamora, attended the plenary session (the first of the 8th mandate) of the General Council of Spanish Citizens Abroad, held in Madrid, on June 14 and 15, and requested that expedite the aid to returned emigrants and in turn the administrative procedures for the homologation of university degrees, two issues highly demanded by the group, especially by Canarian-Venezuelans who have arrived in the Archipelago or by their direct relatives.
The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, and the Secretary of State for Migration, Jesús Javier Perea, participated in the General Council, and the plenary session elected Violeta Alonso as the new president.
The deputy minister also requested that the Emigration Medal of Honor be awarded, posthumously (he died at the end of 2018), to the former member of that Council, the Canarian Carmelo González Acosta, emigrant to Cuba and one of the greatest defenders of the islanders in that country.
In addition, he underlined the support of the consular body of Spain for the work of returning Canarians abroad during the period with reduced mobility due to the covid pandemic.
In the section on acknowledgments for actions carried out, the Department of Foreign Action recognized the elimination of the requested vote and applauded the inter-administrative collaboration for the benefit of Spanish emigrants.
For Juan Rafael Zamora, this session of the General Council of Spanish Citizenship Abroad was very fruitful because a battery of proposals came forward that will improve the quality of life of Spaniards residing outside their country.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Action explained in this forum the main lines of action of the Canary Executive in attention to residents outside the islands, especially the most needy and vulnerable.
MORE THAN 173,000 CANARIES ABROAD
In this line, he referred to the fact that “attention to these Canarians is a priority, as well as to the different Canarian entities abroad, which are 96 at this time, distributed in eleven countries, in addition to 14 located on the Peninsula”.
Regarding these non-profit organisations, he said that they do a “great job”, in collaboration with the Government of the Canary Islands, to maintain “the Canary Islands”, the island’s culture and traditions, apart from providing “welfare services to the Canary Islands and their descendants with greater social vulnerability” who are abroad.
The Deputy Ministry of Foreign Action of the Government of the Canary Islands “has made a budgetary effort in this legislature –Zamora maintained– to help our people abroad, since the items dedicated to this purpose have increased by 91.75% since the year 2019 until this 2022”.
There are currently 173,699 Canarians residing outside of Spain, of which 60,000 are in Venezuela and some 65,000 in Cuba.
For this reason, the actions of the Government of the Canary Islands in relation to this group are focused mainly on those countries, without forgetting the rest, indicated Juan Rafael Zamora.
