The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, expressed his concern this Tuesday that "there is no idea" of the number of ships in the so-called Russian "ghost" fleet sailing in island waters, and warned of the risk of an ecological disaster that could hamper the archipelago's economy for years.
Clavijo expressed himself in this way in response to the deputy of the Mixed group for AHI in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Raúl Acosta, who was interested in the navigation of Russian ships under the flag of third countries to avoid EU sanctions.
Raúl Acosta also pointed out that many of these ships sail in precarious conditions and carry goods such as unrefined crude oil, which they sometimes transfer from ship to ship, with the consequent environmental risk.
President Fernando Clavijo has warned that this is a worrying issue because there is no information about what is happening with this "phantom" fleet, which may exceed a thousand vessels and which sometimes sail close to the archipelago.
"It is not known what they are transporting or under what conditions. Some are old and could cause any type of spill or accident that would impact our coasts, our biodiversity, and our main activity, tourism," Clavijo pointed out.
The regional executive has conveyed this concern to the central government, also in writing, without having received a response, he added.
The Canary Islands Government argues in this regard that the Statute of Autonomy indicates that the Autonomous Community must be present in matters relating to waters near the islands under state jurisdiction.
Clavijo insisted that "we have no idea of the number of ships that are circulating, nor in what conditions, nor what they are transporting, nor the consequences of what could happen."
Given the lack of response from the central government, he said, the central Executive will insist on this issue at the next meeting attended by the Minister of Public Works, Pablo Rodríguez, the president added.
In this regard, Fernando Clavijo has stressed that this is one of the issues in which "if nothing happens, then nothing happens, but the day it does happen, we will regret it for many years, because an ecological disaster of that magnitude can cost the recovery of biodiversity and the damage for a long time."