SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Jan. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, confessed this Tuesday that the islands continue to be “overwhelmed” with the care of a total of 4,521 unaccompanied migrant minors in more than 60 centers and at a time when NGOs are telling them that “they can’t take it anymore.”
In statements to journalists after meeting with the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, who has visited Tenerife to check the state of the migrant camps of Las Raíces and Las Canteras, in Tenerife, the Canarian president has appealed to not lose “sensitivity” with immigration management.
“We cannot dehumanize everything,” he pointed out, stressing that it is “even reasonable” for people to want to leave their country “fleeing hunger, death and misery, seeking a better future for themselves and their children, and that is a phenomenon that the European Union has to manage.”
Clavijo has indicated that last year the “record” in the arrival of migrants was broken with more than 40,000 people and that is why they are “concerned” about planning well what is going to happen in 2024.
The president has given as an example of the pressure suffered by the islands that the United States has under its guardianship, 11,700 minors with 300 million inhabitants, while the Canary Islands, with 2.2 million inhabitants, has 4,500 minors.
“No matter how much, and I take advantage of and thank the NGOs that are working, that they go out of their way and work, we cannot guarantee a life project for these unaccompanied minors. And that is the concern of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Government of Spain, is what we need to be able to regulate appropriately so that in the end the right of the minor prevails,” he indicated.
He has recognized that “there is no capacity” to continue housing minors and this despite the fact that a “significant effort” has been made in bone tests together with the Canary Islands Prosecutor’s Office to “separate” adults from minors but the problem of funds is that some cannot even be “schooled.”
Along these lines, he has said that his Government is working on the preparation of legal texts to ensure that the distribution of migrant minors is mandatory and does not depend on the “solidarity” of the different autonomous communities.
THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO SERVE THEM “WITH DIGNITY”, HE NOTES
The objective, he pointed out, is that the care of migrant minors is a “matter of State” and criteria are established to guarantee reception and guardianship, AFTER the transfer of more than 700 in just over two years and a volume of arrivals current that “is not relevant.”
“The important thing is that these boys and girls have a reasonable development and life process. They are boys and girls, they could be our children, our grandchildren, our brothers or sisters, and the important thing right now is to be able to care for them with dignity,” he said. explained.
Clavijo has indicated that they will also work together with the central government to obtain more economic resources from the EU given that the 50 million transferred so far are insufficient – last year the Canarian Government allocated 104 million to the care of migrants. – and at least until the distribution and distribution of minors is “resolved.”
The Canary Islands president has insisted that the Atlantic route is “highly dangerous” and that is why he has also demanded that the EU’s Frontex service be deployed.
