SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The general director of Child and Family Protection of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sandra Rodríguez, reported this Friday that after the first five days of application of the new protocol together with the Prosecutor’s Office to determine the age of migrants “the average alleged minors who turn out to be older exceeds 50%.”
For this reason, the General Directorate demands that the central government improve the age determinations of migrants who are arriving to the islands.
“The first reception of migrants arriving in the archipelago is carried out by the central government, which is the one that makes available to the Canary Islands those it considers minors, who are those under the jurisdiction of the Autonomous Community,” explains Rodríguez, who requests ” more means and precision when making determinations of majority to protect minors”.
Some autonomous communities denounced in a meeting held this week with the Ministry of Inclusion that there were obvious minors in the referrals of adult migrants from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula, a complaint to which Amnesty International has also joined, according to a note from the Executive.
These errors had already been previously detected by the Canary Islands Government, which faces another problem, that of adult migrants who are declared minors.
This reality has meant that the General Directorate, in addition to making an extra effort to care for more than 4,400 unaccompanied foreign minors who are under its guardianship, has also reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office to increase the number of prosecutors, forensic doctors and number of weekly bone tests carried out on minors who are in centers on the islands.
“In addition to promoting an increase in resources to carry out bone tests and quickly determine the age of migrants who are declared minors, but about whom there are doubts, the General Directorate has also created specific reception devices for the youngest minors and others. for the older ones or those whose age we are not sure of,” explains Rodríguez.
The new protocol was approved a few days ago within the framework of a meeting promoted by the Superior Prosecutor of the Canary Islands, María Farnés, and was the result of a series of previous meetings of the General Directorate of Protection of Children and Families with the Prosecutor’s Office. of Minors and Immigration.
This protocol establishes, among other measures, the incorporation of more material and human resources to this work and contemplates increasing the number of bone tests performed weekly.
SANDRA RODRÍGUEZ: A “DELICATE SITUATION”
“This joint work is essential because it is suspected that a significant percentage of migrants arriving in the archipelago are initially declared as minors, but are later found to be over 18 years old,” he points out.
Thus, it indicates that it is a “delicate situation” that the General Directorate tries to avoid because they must always be guided by “preserving the interest of the minor and not allowing adults and minors to coexist in the same facility.”
He also confirms that the General Directorate has felt “very supported by the Prosecutor’s Office, which has put all its effort into addressing this reality as soon as possible.”
In fact, it has already incorporated portable equipment in Tenerife that makes it possible to carry out bone tests at the time when the migrants are being reviewed, that is, when they have just arrived.
This work is carried out under the supervision of a forensic doctor, who will be present while the National Police attend to the migrants after disembarkation.
