SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director of Amnesty International in Spain, Esteban Beltrán, has asked the Government of the Canary Islands to increase inspections in reception centers, where cases of minors with adults are being detected, and better legal assistance to migrant minors who arrive at the Canary coasts from the African continent.
These are just some of the requests that Amnesty International has conveyed to the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and to the Minister of Social Welfare, Candelaria Delgado, who announced that she has already processed the request for meetings with the Ministers of Social Rights, Pablo Bustindoy; Migrations, Elma Saiz; and Childhood, Sira Rego, to address the situation of the 4,461 unaccompanied minors supervised by the Autonomous Community.
Specifically, the director of Amnesty International in Spain has explained to the Government of the Canary Islands the need to guarantee legal assistance to migrant minors who arrive on the islands other than just “filling out a mere form”, so that they can indicate all the difficulties they are having when arriving in the country. He also appealed to the need for more interpreters to be able to guarantee the rights of these minors.
Likewise, Esteban Beltrán has suggested an increase in inspections in shelters, as he considers it “very serious” that there are minors living with adults in these centers, which can lead to “all types of abuse.”
Precisely, the Minister of Social Welfare transferred the measures promoted by the Canary Islands Executive in this sense, among them the protocol agreed with the Superior Prosecutor’s Office of the Canary Islands to accelerate the age determination processes. This protocol established, among other measures, the incorporation of more material and human resources to this work and contemplates increasing the number of bone tests performed weekly.
Amnesty International has also been able to learn about the approach of the Canary Islands Executive to introduce a modification in the Minors’ Law and establish a co-responsibility mechanism in which the rest of the autonomous communities participate, so that the protection and care of the children does not fall solely on the Canary Islands. unaccompanied boys and girls.
It must be taken into account that from 2021 to date, 365 minors have been referred to other territories and that in the last Sectoral Conference on Childhood and Adolescence it was agreed to refer another 339 minors from the Islands to the Peninsula, but they have not yet been taken to carry out these derivations that, however, the Canary Islands Executive describes as “insufficient.”
In this regard, Esteban Beltrán agreed that the reception of unaccompanied minors “is a responsibility of the central government and the Canary Islands government, but also of the other autonomous governments.” For this reason, Amnesty International has asked the Government of the Canary Islands to send them all the legal information with which they have prepared this proposal to analyze it and see if they can support it, as it reiterated that “it is important that there is a shared responsibility of the entire State.”
During the meeting, other issues were discussed, such as measures to reduce health waiting lists in the archipelago, among them, the reinforcement of Primary Care in which the Government of the Canary Islands is already working and the launch of a network of centers , specifically five resources, that the Executive will launch to assist victims of sexual violence
Finally, the Government of the Canary Islands has committed to the representatives of Amnesty International to promote a parliamentary debate to support the ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, as has already been done in Navarra or Catalonia.
