The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has asked for "humanity" from the rest of the regional presidents and has pointed out that in a country of 49 million inhabitants, welcoming 4,000 children cannot pose any problem.
Clavijo expressed himself in this way after a meeting in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, on the day that the decree that sets the maximum capacities of the autonomous reception systems for minors comes into force and after the announcement by several autonomous communities governed by the Popular Party to appeal the measure.
"We must learn to manage the migration issue with dignity and not use it as a tool for xenophobic and fascist politics that often has to do with the skin color -of migrants-. We have managed the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without this response from the xenophobic and fascist right-wing populism that we are seeing," declared Fernando Clavijo.
Regarding these appeals to the decree and whether he believes they have the capacity to slow down the referrals, the Canarian president has expressed that he does not believe this is the case because it would require the issuance of precautionary measures and both the Supreme Court, in three different orders regarding migrant minors, and the Constitutional Court have advocated prioritizing the protection of minors.
"At the time, the Constitutional Court also spoke of the fact that the issue of minors was a concurrent competence of the communities and the Government of Spain, which must guarantee solidarity and protect the best interests of the minor and their integration," continued Fernando Clavijo.
Regarding the pace of departure of minors to other centers on the peninsula, he said he does not understand the reason for the slowness and the "drip-feed" departures, although he admitted that it could be done better by everyone.
For this reason, Fernando Clavijo has announced a reinforcement of 26 workers until the end of the year to help process all the documentation related to the guardianship of unaccompanied children and adolescents.
He has also asserted that he is "convinced" that if any autonomous community refuses to welcome them, the Prosecutor's Office "will intervene ex officio", since throughout the process this institution "has helped" to ensure that common sense "prevails".
Regarding the deadlines for minors who must be referred even if they do not have assigned international protection, Clavijo explained that, since the capacity of the Canary Islands is exceeded, where it is tripled, minors who arrive will automatically be assigned an autonomous community of destination.
