The archipelago has welcomed 586 minors to date this month, with the Government recalling that Torres previously suggested reviewing the competencies back in 2022.
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 23 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Canary Islands Government Council has decided this Monday to submit a request to the central government, alerting them to an “accumulation of non-compliances” relating to the management and care of unaccompanied migrant minors.
At a press conference to reveal the agreements, government spokesman, Alfonso Cabello, stated that the archipelago believes that “not all legal considerations” pertinent to the State are being taken into account.
Consequently, the Canarian Government has provided a 30-day period for the State to present its arguments. Following this time frame, it will pursue the legal and judicial actions deemed “appropriate” by the legal services of the autonomous community to ensure that the State assumes its responsibilities regarding unaccompanied foreign minors. “They are its responsibility and it is obliged to care for them,” he added.
As per Cabello, this request incorporates a legal report from March 2022, compiled by the Government led by the current Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, which previously highlighted, during a Sectoral Conference on Children, that the autonomous jurisdiction over migrant minors was an issue that needed to be “resolved” and could be contested.
Thus, the Canarian Government continues to assert that as long as minors lack documentation, “they must be the responsibility of the State” since “the initial guardianship and custody” falls upon the Maritime Rescue teams until they are handed over to NGOs at the centres.
Cabello also mentioned that the Department of Social Welfare will lodge two appeals against the decisions made by the Public Prosecutor’s Office over the weekend that mandated the accommodation of minors “in centres that are significantly over capacity.”
Nevertheless, he remarked that all minors arriving in the islands – 586 out of a total of 4,075 migrants this month – are receiving care “without question” and he reiterated that the minors’ protocol in the Canary Islands, which has been provisionally suspended by the TSJC, aims to “clarify” the reception process.
“In no circumstance is it about creating barriers for any public administration,” he emphasised, underscoring that the issue lies in the fact that “minors are being transferred without meeting the minimum conditions regarding information and ensuring the rights of the minor, which must always take precedence.”
In this respect, he pointed out that the “mere fact” of discussing the protocol from the Government of the Canary Islands “has resulted in a de facto improvement in the conditions under which they are received” because there have been instances where no photograph was taken or where minors arrived with the same name duplicated.
He also articulated that “the Canary Islands have been enduring the strain of the continental migration crisis for several months” alone, and in seeking solutions, they remain “caught up in anecdotal issues”, ironically noting that the State has deemed its asylum network for refugees saturated while the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not exhibited the “same urgency” as with the archipelago.
END THE “POLITICAL TENSION”
“I genuinely believe we should steer clear of political tension and avoid, for instance, the Facebook posts made by the Government delegate this past weekend, and begin to focus on finding a resolution to the issue, such as amending article 35 of the immigration law,” he remarked in reference to Anselmo Pestana’s criticisms of minors sleeping in the CATEs in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
According to the spokesman, we are witnessing “a performance of disagreement where a certain level of political theatrics exists, attempting to see who can outdo the other, but we have yet to delve into and tackle the problem” while complex situations persist in the Canary Islands, such as over 1,000 minors from Mali entitled to international asylum.
He also chastised the central government for failing to provide “a single euro” for the minors’ care, even as the EU, through the visit of European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, announced a special fund of 14 million.
When questioned about the involvement of the Canarian Police in the transport of minors from El Hierro, he stated that “there may have been some minor confusion” but affirmed that all requests from the Prosecutor’s Office “are being addressed promptly.”
“What matters on the island of El Hierro is not whether it is the General Corps or the National Police transporting the children. The crucial issue is whether we are taking them to centres capable of providing care or not. Are we compelling centres to admit minors for whom they do not possess the capacity?” he inquired.
