The proposal for the reform of the immigration law that aimed to address the situation of unaccompanied migrant minors in the Canary Islands is no longer an option for the regional government led by Fernando Clavijo. The President of the Canary Islands believes that the “humanitarian crisis” unfolding in the islands requires an “urgent response” that can only be achieved through the approval of an immediate royal decree by the central government, aimed at “simplifying” the administrative procedures necessary for the transfer of these minors and matters relating to their guardianship.
Therefore, two days after the challenging conference in Tenerife regarding Childhood and Adolescence, where the PP autonomous communities avoided supporting the immigration law reform and mandatory sharing of minors with other territories, Clavijo urged Pedro Sánchez’s government to address this issue with the necessary urgency and approve the legal figure, transferring it to Congress for validation in the plenary session on the 23rd of the next month, or at least before the end of July.
This was not the only appearance of the Canarian president in Madrid that Friday, as a few hours earlier, he had presented with the CEOE the joint commitment to strengthen business ties with Africa, another way to contribute to the development of the continent to curb immigration through the deadly Canarian route.
The president of the Canary Islands Confederation of Entrepreneurs (CCE), Pedro Ortega, the president of CEIM, Miguel Garrido, and the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, during the presentation of the Ibero-African Business Forum 2024 at the CEOE headquarters, on July 12, 2024, in Madrid (Spain). The event, organized by the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), aims to promote economic and business activity between Africa and Spain. JULY 12, 2024;CEOE;FORUM;AFRICA;SPAIN Alberto Ortega / Europa Press 07/12/2024 / FERNANDO CLAVIJO;MIGUEL GARRIDO;PEDRO ORTEGA;Alberto Ortega; / Alberto Ortega / Europa Press
Compatible Proposals
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Clavijo acknowledged the importance of presenting a draft law, which the central government supports for greater legal safeguards, but believes it is no longer sufficient to address the collapse that the autonomous community’s reception resources are experiencing. “We are aware that the draft law may be an important path to improve the wording of the law, to introduce measures for greater protection, to have a more thoughtful dialogue on the essential and necessary reform of a law that adapts to the times we are living in, with the possibility of amending other articles, but this path, which we support, can run parallel to the approval in July of a decree-law for a humanitarian emergency,” explained the president.
Clavijo stressed the compatibility of both proposals, but only the decree-law path is able to address the “humanitarian emergency.” “We consider it perfectly compatible, and we believe that the response the Spanish government and the whole country as a society must give should be united,” stated the president, emphasizing that this response must be made “preserving the rights of boys and girls” and in compliance with international treaties on the matter.
“This requires an analysis in the draft law to give it greater depth, but the response to the humanitarian emergency must be through a decree-law” for which the central government was also urged to garner the necessary parliamentary support for validation. He proposed in this regard that the decree-law could be processed as a bill once validated and therefore continue its application from the day after its approval by the Council of Ministers. “The draft law will not be timely for the response we need,” he reiterated.
Clavijo refrained from considering the conference in Tenerife a failure just because the distribution of the 400 pending minors was approved, and the communities did not express their views on the legal reform aiming to regulate this sharing permanently. “I do not initially share the idea that solidarity has failed or try to pit communities against each other. What does not work is the system,” he affirmed, refusing to point fingers at the regions governed by the PP as responsible for the lack of support at the Tenerife summit for the proposal agreed between the Canary Islands and the State.
The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, during the press conference offered to discuss the issue of the distribution of minors by the autonomous communities. In the midst of negotiations between autonomous communities, the distribution of 347 immigrant minors under guardianship in the Canary Islands and Ceuta has been decided, which has caused a rupture in the governments in which the Popular Party governs together with Vox.
“Jesus Hellin “
Surgical Touch-Up
The Canarian president defended the decree law as a “surgical touch-up of the law precisely because it has to be quick” so that, once in force, minors who arrive in the Canary Islands from now on, and after being under the initial protection measures of the autonomous community and being identified and registered in the Ministry of the Interior’s minor registry, “they would already be allocated to another autonomous community” as the Canary Islands have exceeded their hosting capacity by 150%.
“Within these fifteen days, the minor is provided with the initial protection measures, after which they leave and begin their life project in the context where they will stay,” he explained before stating: “Let’s not think that moving a minor is just putting them in a box, taking them on a plane, dropping them off somewhere else. Anyone who thinks like that has no idea what we are talking about.”
No Consequences
Clavijo ruled out that the PP’s position of rejecting mandatory distribution upfront will have consequences on the government pact between CC and the People’s Party in the Islands. According to him, the Canarian PP and its president, Manuel Domínguez, who is also the vice president of the regional government, “are committed to the reform” of the law.
“I am pleased that in the Canary Islands we have been able to isolate ourselves from this madness that politics has become in Madrid and reach agreements on matters of vital importance,” said the CC leader, who emphasized that “the Canarian people are setting an example of commitment and solidarity, and we are attending to those boys and girls arriving on our coasts with our own resources.” However, he stated, “this does not mean that we are going to settle or that we are happy with how things are being handled, both in the Congress of Deputies and in the Government of Spain.”
“I am convinced that in the end common sense, humanity, and respect for international law will prevail, and that a decree law will be presented and validated in Congress,” he concluded.
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