The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has threatened this Tuesday to "activate" the Prosecutor's Office for Minors if the communities continue to not collaborate in hosting unaccompanied migrant minors from the islands: "We are going to make the law be fulfilled, we will not hesitate", he assured.
In statements to the media after a meeting with the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, in the Senate, Clavijo explained that there are 657 children and adolescents who were in the archipelago before the migratory contingency was declared, and who must leave the islands before next March 18.
He specified that they are encountering "difficulties" in carrying out the reallocations with communities such as Madrid, La Rioja, or Castilla-La Mancha, but the Canary Islands will comply with the law "yes or yes," so, if there is still no collaboration, they will activate the Prosecutor's Office.
According to the regional president, the Public Prosecutor's Office can order the corresponding regional minister to attend to the minor, as it has done on other occasions with the Canary Islands: "And if not, we are talking about contempt and we are talking about the minister in charge getting involved in criminal proceedings, they will know," he explained.
Clavijo pointed out that when they contact the communities, they allege a lack of places and resources: "So, what do we have to say when they arrive at La Restinga in El Hierro, that we have no places and no resources? But the minor must be attended to," he reasoned.
He affirmed that, until now, the Canary Islands have tried "not to generate more stress for the minor," since these are children who have suffered "a terrible process," but he recalled that "the model of solidarity failed" and that is why the law was modified.
"We would like the minor to be welcomed with all guarantees and, allow me to say it this way, lovingly, but if the law must be fulfilled and the Prosecutor's Office has to intervene for that community that refuses or says it has no places or puts obstacles... then we will have to do it," he argued.
Almost 1,000 migrant minors have already been transferred to the peninsula
This very Tuesday, the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, has reported that almost 1,000 unaccompanied minor migrants have already been transferred to the peninsula from the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla, a process that has concluded without any coexistence problems.
Specifically, these are 926, of which 486 have been transferred due to the reform of the foreign law and 440 as a consequence of the Supreme Court's order for the State to take charge of the asylum-seeking children and adolescents that the Canary Islands were caring for.
Clavijo has specified that, once those 657 have been transferred, the Canary Islands would be left with the 2,211 which, according to the approved law, represents triple their ordinary reception capacity and would allow them to have "reasonable resources to be able to attend to any contingency that may arise".
Regarding this forecast, he has said he is in contact with the authorities of Morocco and Mauritania and has explained that the flows are "going down south", with departure points located in Gambia and Senegal.
About the young people who have arrived on the islands after the declaration of a migratory contingency, for whom the law sets a deadline of 15 days to be transferred, Clavijo has said that they miss "a bit more diligence" from the State Administration.
Specifically, he considers that the Government Sub-delegations could apply a certain "exceptionality" to the common administrative procedure and be more agile.
