The bill to reform the Immigration Law registered this Monday in the Congress of Deputies proposes to modify article 35 of the law to establish a binding distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors among the different autonomous communities from the most affected regions, which must be completed within 15 days after the registration of the minor.
Thus, the initiative presented by PSOE, Sumar and Coalición Canaria intends to introduce a new article 35 bis that will declare the existence of "extraordinary migratory contingency situations" in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, territories where the "peculiarities of their geographical location" favor the arrival of current migratory flows.
Overcrowding is set at 150%
The distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors will be carried out when the insufficiency of the autonomous services of the receiving regions to care for these children is accredited.
In this line, the reform establishes that it will be understood that there is "overcrowding" when the minors in care exceed 150% of the number of ordinary places available in the system. In the Canary Islands there will be 2000 places, while Ceuta and Melilla will have 88 and 166, respectively.
Therefore, in the Canary Islands the transfer of minors will be launched when more than 3,000 unaccompanied foreign minors are registered - currently there are about 6,000 counted - a figure that in Ceuta is 132 and in Melilla 249.
The rule also establishes that the mechanism for referring these children between the different autonomous communities, as well as the "objective criteria" for determining places per region, will be agreed by the Sectoral Conference on Children and Adolescents "attending to the principle of solidarity".
Until the approval of the new management model, which will have a "mandatory character" for all autonomous communities and must be ready in the three months following the entry into force of the law, the plan approved in the Sectoral Conference of September 30, 2022 will be applied, taking into account "the necessary adaptations".
15-day deadline for transfers
The transfer of children to the autonomous community of destination must take place within 15 days from the registration of the same in the Register of Unaccompanied Minors.
However, taking into account the "urgency" of the migratory crisis and the volume of minors present especially in the Canary Islands, the initiative establishes a transitional period for the application of the law.
Thus, all minors who at the time of the entry into force of the rule exceed 150% of the occupation of the stressed communities may be distributed within a maximum period of 12 months among the rest of the regions.
The reform also adds to article 52 of the rule a new point by which it will be considered a "minor infraction" when the entities or persons who work in the care of migrant minors do not communicate to the public authority the location of the same.
Urgent processing
PSOE and Sumar will begin this week to try to tie up support so that this bill can be approved "as soon as possible" and the idea is that it be taken into consideration in the last extraordinary plenary session scheduled in Congress for July 23.
The objective is to process the initiative urgently to give legal guarantee to unaccompanied immigrant minors who are expected to arrive in the Canary Islands in August.
The socialists trust that the PP has a sense of State and stops putting "excuses" while Sumar also opens the door to the Catalan independentists. Sources close to the Ministry led by Sira Rego point out that ERC has made contributions to several documents and from the plurinational parliamentary group it is emphasized that Junts does not attack the distribution of minors in a way that is "so ideological" as Vox.
"We are optimistic because the role of the PP is fundamental", the signatories agreed, who trust that the popular will change their strategy after the departure of Vox from the autonomous coalition governments.
The socialists also emphasize that the path should be the bill and not a decree law, as requested by the Canarians, since they recall that if the decree is not validated, the margin of legal insecurity of immigrant minors would be much greater.
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