The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has this Tuesday demanded “concrete answers” from the Spanish Executive and the European Union to the migration emergency. He did so after suspending his agenda to move to the island of El Hierro and analyze the situation with the authorities and health professionals.
The westernmost island of the Canary Islands, registered almost 2,000 arrivals last weekend and has been the destination of more than half of the boats (98) that have reached the Canary coasts in January.
Fernando Clavijo has appealed to “dialogue and institutional loyalty” but has insisted that “solutions have to arrive now.” Precisely, he will transfer this request to the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, with whom he will discuss the four legislative reform proposals for the distribution of unaccompanied children among the different autonomous communities.
In this regard, the Canarian president has insisted that “we are experiencing a terrible month of January and the situation will not change until the European Union does cooperation and development work with the emitting countries, but in the meantime neither El Hierro nor the Canary Islands can continue to bear the migratory pressure and the tension of public services alone, we need answers from the Spanish Government.”
Although he has recognized the agility in the transfers, he has highlighted that “Canarias is the guardian of 5,600 minors to whom it is necessary to guarantee attention and a life project and at this time it is impossible because we do not have resources and we are in a limit situation.”
Precisely, the head of the Executive announced this Tuesday the transfer of seventy-five children from El Hierro to the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, but stressed “it is not fair that the Canary Islands face this emergency alone nor is it fair that El Hierro does it or that the islands and public services bear all the migratory pressure.”
President Clavijo has assured that “Canarias has already done the task by putting four legislative reforms on the table, two of them via decree law, but these reforms have to be led by the Spanish Government and it has to do so as soon as possible.”
