The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, acknowledged this Friday at the end of the XXVII Conference of Presidents that "today a unique opportunity has been lost to give an immediate response to the migratory drama in the Canary Islands." The Canarian president, who received "the support and solidarity" of the rest of the regional presidents, trusted in continuing to work with the State, which will be in charge of establishing the "legal figure" for the extraordinary distribution debated today in the next three months.
President Clavijo lamented, however, "the absence of prior work or document in which the autonomous communities could advance with the State" with the exception of the proposal he defended together with the Lehendakari Imanol Pradales, whom he thanked for his willingness and joint work, and insisted on the need to focus on the humanitarian drama that we have been sustaining in the Canary Islands for more than a year and the migratory pressure that other border territories such as Ceuta also have."
However, Fernando Clavijo warned that the Canary Islands "has been in a critical situation for more than a year" when the Autonomous Community declared a social emergency. In this context, the head of the Canarian Executive pointed out that "the Canary Islands will continue working to guarantee the best interests of the minors who remain in the network of reception resources in the islands and those who continue to arrive daily."
In this regard, Clavijo pointed to the proposal on an "extraordinary distribution" defended by the Canary Islands and the Basque Country as "an in extremis response that would allow us to continue taking steps until we reach an agreement to modify the Immigration Law in the Courts, which we cannot and will not renounce."
The text that was debated this Friday in the plenary session included the need for a Strategic Migration Plan based on "planning, forecasting of different scenarios, evaluation indicators and a real economic report."
Regarding the criteria for the extraordinary distribution of unaccompanied minors, it proposes a formula based on up to five indicators. Specifically, those referring to the total population, reception (average number of minors per one hundred thousand inhabitants in the last six months), GDP per capita, unemployment and solidarity criterion, using as a reference the number of boys and girls received in the last five years.
The proposal establishes an application period "no longer than three months" together with the corresponding legal figure that the State should agree with the territories. It also demanded the opening of a "more calm debate" in the Sectoral Conference on Childhood on the distribution coefficients for the future.
The objective, according to the proposal, "is to guarantee the best interests of unaccompanied minors who have entered through the Canary Islands" while allowing "transparency and predictability, establishing a clear framework that facilitates the planning and management of resources" of the territories.
Likewise, the text includes the need to establish mechanisms for the exchange of information, experiences and pilot projects linked to training in origin between the territories, such as the Tierra Firme program led by the Canarian Executive, and to strengthen cooperation with the countries of origin, focusing on the mechanisms established in article 35 of Organic Law 4/2000 and the new immigration regulations, so that "girls, boys, adolescents and young people can develop their life project in their country of origin" while "promoting orderly transitions through circular migration."
5,852 unaccompanied minors
Eighteen days before the end of the year, the Canary Islands has registered the arrival of 628 boats with a total of 43,264 people, including 5,852 who were declared unaccompanied minors at the foot of the dock. These figures exceed by almost a thousand the number of unaccompanied boys and girls who arrived in the islands in 2023 when a total of 4,865 minors arrived on the Canarian coasts.
In this context, the President of the Canary Islands stressed the saturation of the network of reception resources in the Canary Islands and acknowledged that "many of these centers host more than 300 unaccompanied minors," which makes it "impossible to protect the rights of the minor, as it is impossible to give them the language skills or insert them into the educational system at the speed they are arriving and while they do not leave."
For this reason, he insisted on the need to give an immediate response to the emergency situation in the islands on the same day that the European Border and Coast Guard Agency recognizes the Canary Islands as the main entry route to Europe in the month of November and the fall in 60% of the central Mediterranean route. In this regard, President Clavijo pointed out that "this is a clear example that migration policies are failing."
Financing and REF
The XXVIII Conference of Presidents also addressed issues in the areas of housing, health and regional financing. On this last issue, the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, defended before the plenary session the separation of the Canarian Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF) from any reform of the regional financing system and argued that "every time this debate is opened we have our reservations because there is a tendency to mix our REF with the financing system, which -he clarified- are two different laws."
President Clavijo defended on the reform of the regional system that it must start from "transparency." He also assured that "there has to be prior work on what service and what welfare state we want to know the resources we need to finance it" and at this point he insisted that apart from this "our REF is untouchable."
Likewise, in terms of housing, the head of the Canarian Executive was in favor of a modification of the Land Law, he explained "the experiences we are having from the Canary Islands not only with the decree to speed up the construction of public housing but also with the decree we are preparing to speed up the obtaining of licenses in the municipalities" so that it does not exceed 90 days.
Finally, on the debate surrounding the shortage of health professionals, President Clavijo explained the difficulties for professionals to stay in the islands, especially in the most populated ones, and defended the need to "rethink the system." In this sense, he proposed studying measures to improve the productivity of health professionals and the possibility of expanding the scope of competence in the field of Nursing to alleviate the burden in the medical field.
In addition to the President of the Canary Islands, the Minister of the Presidency, Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Nieves Lady Barreto, participated in the technical tables of the XXVII Conference of Presidents held today in Santander.
