Staff at the Canary Islands Government's reception centers have received training this week on the new protocol for missing minors, which aims to provide an "agile response," differentiating between whether it is a conscious or voluntary, involuntary, or criminal absence.
The Director General of Child and Family Protection, Sandra Rodríguez, specified this Wednesday that not all reports of disappearances of minors from government centers and resources have the same level of seriousness, and she insisted on the importance of finding out what is behind repeated cases.
She detailed that in the Canary Islands "there are 3,330 active reports affecting the disappearances of 1,140 minors who, at some point, may have disappeared, for a weekend, arriving late, for a few hours, days... Not understanding what is behind the figures can generate alarm."
Therefore, she highlighted the importance of the new unified protocol, which includes a form to distinguish the risks of each report, with which "we will have immediate feedback from the moment the report is filed. It is a very important step to differentiate what situation occurs in each case, as an absence or a delay is not the same thing," she insisted.
The Director General also highlighted the agility of this immediate coordination, which is updated as hours pass, and among other things, also allows for immediate communication when the minor has returned to the accommodation resource.
The training sessions, held in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, were taught by members of security forces and corps and were organized by the Directorate General of Child and Family Protection and the National Center for Missing Persons (CNDES).
Staff at reception centers receive training on the new child disappearance protocol
The new unified protocol includes a form to distinguish the risks of each disappearance report, as the Canary Islands government assures that not all of them have the same severity
January 28 2026 (14:01 WET)
