Domínguez (PP) says that the death of more than 80 people towards the Canary Islands would be avoided "by closing the border"

The Vice President of the Canary Islands Government, Manuel Domínguez, from the PP, has demanded this Thursday to prevent the arrival of African immigrants as a way to avoid tragedies like that of the more than 80 people who died in a pirogue heading to the islands, stating: "the way to save lives is by closing the border".

However, groups like Caminando Fronteras, which have been monitoring the deaths of people arriving in Spain for years, have warned on different occasions that the European policy of externalizing borders is causing people who migrate to have to take increasingly distant and dangerous routes. For example, the pirogue in which 83 people died traveling to the Canary Islands departed from Gambia, more than 1,600 kilometers from the port of Arguineguín, a route that is growing as border controls in Senegal and Mauritania increase. 

Because, "if the borders had been protected, if the borders had been closed, no one would have died and today a pirogue would not have arrived on our coasts with more than 80 dead," Manuel Domínguez has argued.

The also leader of the Popular Party in the archipelago, in response to journalists at an event for the delivery of assistance dogs to people with disabilities, has lamented the misfortune of the pirogue travelers, but has insisted on holding the Spanish Government, presided over by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, responsible for the outcome of the expedition.

As proof of this, the Canarian vice president has referred to statements he has attributed to Pedro Sánchez that he claims demonstrate his accusations towards the Executive headed by the socialist, stating: "I heard this morning the President of the Spanish Government say that the Police let the immigrants pass (on the breakwater in Ceuta) so that they would not die at sea".

Declarations against which he has added: "Enough is enough with the jokes."