SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 24 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Canary Islands President, Fernando Clavijo, ridiculed the political reliance of the High Prosecutor’s Office of the Canary Islands on Tuesday after it temporarily suspended the protocol for receiving migrant minors within the autonomous region.
“Whoever leads the Public Prosecutor’s Office, that is the situation,” he replied to NC-BC spokesperson, Luis Campos, during a parliamentary control session, echoing a remark made by President Pedro Sánchez in a radio interview years ago.
Clavijo informed Campos that he is more acquainted with the Canary Islands’ High Prosecutor, María Farnés, “far better” than Campos, highlighting her role in the Grúas and Reparos cases that implicated the president during his mayoral tenure in La Laguna. He questioned why the Prosecutor’s Office and the TSJC are requesting a return to previous practices from the last legislature, which included “collecting children without a photograph, without a record, without a number, and handing them over to a private individual.” “I will not do that,” he asserted.
In this vein, he pointed out that the rights of minors are not upheld, as in numerous instances, their voices are not heard, it remains unclear if they have parents, or if they qualify for asylum. He raised concerns regarding whether the Government’s migration model is indeed the “dock of shame” at Arguineguín.
He specifically inquired about “where the Public Prosecutor’s Office was” during the last legislature, while emphasising that the Canary Islands will not impose further bureaucratic measures on the reception of migrant minors or treat them as if they were “packs of apples.”
Campos (NC-BC) condemned the implications regarding Farnés as “shameful,” noting that she is “a professional who does not allow herself to be swayed by anyone’s orders” and who has advocated for the suspension of the “protocol of shame,” which heightened “legal uncertainty” and prioritised bureaucracy over the welfare of the minors themselves.
He accused Clavijo of unilaterally drafting the protocol outside of the migration agreement and signing an accord with the PP, incorporating several elements that his party does not concur with. “Let us return to unity,” he urged.
