The plenary session of the Constitutional Court has unanimously decided to partially uphold the Government's appeal against several sections of the protocol for care for minors arriving in pateras and cayucos approved by the Canary Islands Executive last year in the face of the arrival crisis in the archipelago.
As sources from the court have informed Efe, the magistrates have agreed to the definitive annulment of these precepts, which were already suspended by the court of guarantees and by order of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC).
On October 8, the court admitted the Executive's appeal for processing, which had invoked article 161.2 of the Constitution, which establishes the automatic suspension when the Government appeals an autonomous regulation for a period of five months.
As planned, the plenary session has accepted the draft of the conservative magistrate Ricardo Enríquez and has upheld the Central Executive's appeal, arguing that the autonomous community has assumed in its statute the competence of social assistance that includes the reception of minors, which, in practice, means annulling the precepts appealed by the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
In the Government's opinion, the Canary Islands Executive's protocol limits the autonomous powers over minors, modifies the legal concept of helplessness, imposes obligations on the State's security forces and bodies and regulates "what the State's actions should be in the exercise of its powers."
In the protocol, the Government of Fernando Clavijo stated that children who arrive on land alone without an adult family member to take care of them are not helpless, but in the custody of the Police or the Civil Guard, so the State is responsible for their first reception.
And it adds that it will only take care of them in the centers of the autonomous community with individualized files, if they have been correctly identified and as long as it has places available.
Apart from the decision of the TC, this protocol was already suspended by order of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, understanding that it exposes this group to a risk of lack of protection, although from the understanding of the complaints of the autonomous Executive.
