The Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families, Candelaria Delgado, said this past Friday that the declaration of migratory contingency, which has just been notified by the Ministry of Youth and Childhood, "represents a historic step for the Canary Islands and for Spain".
She added that both the final approval last Tuesday of the Royal Decree that set the ordinary capacity of each autonomous community and the decision to give the green light to the migratory contingency "means that, for the first time, the Canary Islands has a legal and stable basis for the solidarity distribution of unaccompanied migrant children throughout the national territory".
In this line, she insisted that this will allow to alleviate the pressure to which the archipelago has been subjected for a long time and "will represent an important advance not only for the archipelago but for the whole country as a whole".
Candelaria Delgado highlighted the work carried out by the Canary Islands Government with the support of the entire society of the islands and insisted that "the archipelago has demonstrated for years its capacity to welcome and its humanity, but we needed support to face a situation of collapse that had already become unsustainable both for the Canarians and for the children themselves and that could no longer be faced alone".
Allows to decongest resources
The Minister pointed out that the new mechanism adopted will allow to decongest the reception resources in the islands and guarantee a dignified, humane and quality care to the children who arrive in the Canary Islands.
On the other hand, Candelaria Delgado made a call to the solidarity of the autonomous communities and appealed to the need to "have a supportive and coordinated response, in which all the autonomies share the responsibility, taking into account that all children must be cared for because they have the same rights wherever they live".
Finally, she recalled that "the protection of children is a priority and their interest must always be above any other consideration, especially in a case like this in which children arrive alone and in a situation of extreme vulnerability".
