A delegation from the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament will visit the Canary Islands in May to learn first-hand about the effects of the migration crisis and submit a report to the European Commission. This was announced this Friday by its president, Javier Zarzalejos, at the working table of the Migration Task Force of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR) in which the Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of the Presidency, Octavio Caraballo, participated.
In addition, Zarzalejos has pledged to act as a "guardian" to ensure that the application of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum meets the needs of the regions that, like the Canary Islands, suffer the pressure of migration on the front line. The president of the LIBE Committee considers it "essential" that the distribution of EU funds is adjusted to territorial demands and is not limited to the distribution criteria of the Member States.
The visit of the European Parliament delegation to the Canary Islands will respond to the commitment acquired by Zarzalejos with President Fernando Clavijo. In this sense, the Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, Octavio Caraballo, thanked the LIBE Committee for its involvement with the migration crisis in the Canary Islands. "It seems that the EU listens to us more than our own State," he denounced during his speech at the CPMR working table held in Brussels.
The representative of the autonomous Executive has taken advantage of the meeting of the Migration Task Force of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions to demand greater involvement of the EU in the Atlantic Route "from both shores". After exposing the "limit" situation experienced by the archipelago, Caraballo referred in particular to the need for Europe to act in the face of the saturation and collapse of the reception system for unaccompanied migrant minors.
The Canary Islands is asking for the regionalization of European funds and the modification of the EU regulatory framework to facilitate the distribution of the 5,860 boys and girls that the islands are solely responsible for. This is, he stressed, "to guarantee the defense of the best interests of the child".
In addition, the Deputy Minister considered it a priority that Brussels launch a "strategic action" plan in West Africa that includes the recovery of the European mission in the Sahel and the strengthening of cooperation with countries of origin and transit of migrants.
Figures with a face
With audiovisual support and live testimonies, the representative of the autonomous Government has presented in this international forum the "limit" situation that the islands are going through, bearing alone 76% of the migration that reaches the Spanish coasts. Between 2023 and 2024, 86,753 people arrived on the Canary Islands coast.
In addition to these survivors, thousands of people have lost their lives on this route considered the deadliest in the world: the NGO Caminando Fronteras counted almost 10,000 deaths during the past year alone.
Caraballo recalled that this migratory pressure has forced the Government of the Canary Islands to triple the reception facilities for minors, up to 88 centers currently open with an average occupancy of 130% and with specific peaks of 160%. The Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of the Presidency stressed that this saturation prevents the rights of children from being fully fulfilled. In his opinion, Spain and Europe cannot continue to look the other way because these boys and girls "arrive are the responsibility of everyone, not just the Canary Islands".
The presentation of the representative of the Canary Islands Government in the Migration Task Force of the CPMR was supported by two live interventions from the beaches of Nouachott (Mauritania) and from the port of La Restinga (El Hierro). From both shores of the dangerous Atlantic Route, the representative of the Oasis Atlas-Sahel Observatory, Mohamed Amme, and the spokesperson for the Red Cross on the island of El Hierro, Alexis Ramos, explained to the representatives of the European regions their personal vision of this humanitarian drama and demanded that the EU get much more involved in the search for solutions.
The working group focused on the migratory challenge of the Committee of Regions has also had the opportunity to learn through a video various testimonies of minors and an X-ray of the migratory crisis in the archipelago. This audiovisual document emphasizes that the Canary Islands cannot continue to face a challenge of this magnitude alone, so it is asking for urgent help from the EU.
Key debate
Along with the representative of the Canary Islands Government and Zarzalejos, the president of the CPMR, Filip Reinhag, the head of this working table on migration, Stephane Soriano, of the Valencian Government, and the representative of the Balearic Government, Xesca Ramis, also participated in this meeting of the Migration Task Force, as another of the regions affected by migration from Africa.
The Canary Islands has held the vice-presidency of the Migration Task Force of the CPMR since the last meeting of this organization of European regions held at the beginning of October last year in Gonzo (Malta), a meeting in which the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, participated, as part of the strategy he leads with the aim of focusing the EU on the Atlantic Route.
The Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions of Europe is an organization that brings together 160 regions of the EU that was created in 1973 to defend the interests of European coastal areas.
The intervention of the Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of the Presidency in the working group on migration of the CPMR adds to the offensive launched by the Government of the Canary Islands so that the EU is fully involved with all its resources in the Atlantic Route, the most active in the last two years after the decrease registered in the Mediterranean and Balkan routes in 2022, 2024 and so far in 2025, according to Frontex data.
