SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The general director of Protection of Children and Families of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sandra Rodríguez, has met with those responsible for the Prosecutor’s Offices for Minors and Immigration of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to look for formulas that improve age determination of migrants arriving in the Archipelago.
The general director has made this decision because a significant percentage of migrants arriving on the islands are initially declared as minors, but are later found to be over 18 years of age. “This is a delicate situation that (…) we try to avoid because we must always be guided by preserving the interest of the minor and not allowing adults and minors to coexist in the same facility,” said Sandra Rodríguez.
To minimize these situations as much as possible, the General Directorate also has specific resources for babies and older migrant minors, waiting, in the latter case, for their initial declaration to be confirmed.
Rodríguez stressed the willingness and collaboration of both prosecutors’ offices to delve into lines of work and committed to forming an exclusive work team to address this issue. Next Thursday, a new meeting is scheduled between the General Directorate team and both prosecutors of the Tenerife province to establish a course of action that will accelerate the determination of the age of minors. Likewise, next week Rodríguez has another meeting scheduled with the Las Palmas prosecutors.
“Currently, the Canary Islands has about 3,800 unaccompanied migrant minors and the arrival of a larger number is expected in the coming weeks,” said the general director, who clarified that thanks to the approval of the social emergency order since last August 1 “we are opening new devices for the reception and care of minors, but a resource that we open, a resource that is taken care of almost immediately.”
“As when we took office we did not find more public resources in good condition, we must go hand in hand with collaborating entities to find new devices, since we are facing the most worrying migration crisis in the history of the autonomous community and the arrival of people migrants to our shores of about 500 or 600 people daily, of which an average of 100 declare themselves minors,” he explained.
