Clavijo: "It cannot be that 50 people die and I don't receive a call from the Government"

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said this Wednesday night that he refuses to take the humanitarian crisis that the islands are experiencing "as natural" and that "it cannot be" that more than 50 immigrants die on the Canary Route in just six days and no one from the Government has called him.

"It cannot be normal for 50 people to die and for no one from the Government of Spain to have a call, a tweet, a gesture... I think that denotes disinterest in migration, it denotes interest in the Canarian people, when we are setting an example," he said.

Clavijo made these statements in Lanzarote, after meeting with the president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancord, to learn about the situation on the island after the arrival of dozens of boats and inflatable boats on its coasts in the last week.

The president of the Canary Islands has stressed that "even the Pope" has praised the "example of solidarity" that the islands are giving, so "it cannot be" that other administrations leave them "alone".

Fernando Clavijo has recalled that since the beginning of November, more than 3,600 people have been rescued in the Canary Islands in boats and canoes and that more than fifty have lost their lives at sea.

"It seems as if that number of deaths is taken for granted and no, we refuse to take it for granted that there are people who die trying to find a little hope and more in the amount in which they died this weekend," he remarked.

In his opinion, "this cannot continue" and the Government of Spain "cannot look the other way in this humanitarian crisis", but "must be present, must put resources".

"Frontex (the European Border Agency) is still not deployed, we still do not have a migration policy, we still do not have control of entry into our borders and that generates as a consequence what we are experiencing," he added.