The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has criticized politicians who travel to the islands seeking "profit" with a racist and xenophobic message about the migration crisis that the archipelago is suffering.
During statements to the media before participating in the forty-second anniversary of the Constitution of 1978 at the so-called Puerta de los Leones of the Congress of Deputies, he pointed out that this weekend there have been different demonstrations, some in favor of human rights and others "just the opposite".
"It is true that the migratory phenomenon is once again evident in the Canary Islands with a significant increase. It is the second year with the highest number of immigrants arriving in history, even more aggravated because Covid-19 affects it much more, since repatriations are more complicated, if not impossible," he said.
However, he commented that this Sunday, which is a day of "union" of all the Autonomous Communities of Spain and to recognize the "value of the vote" of the Spanish people, "it is not the time for others, going to the Canary Islands, to encourage racism, xenophobia and fanaticism."
"The Canary Islands are a welcoming people --he insisted--. We are migrants, we come from families who had to go to America and there are more than 200,000 islanders around the world, which does not mean that they have forgotten their roots, so I appeal to those who go to the archipelago to make political profit to lend a hand in defending human rights and to never forget that those who get on the boats are the victims."
Therefore, for Torres, what must be done is to ensure that these people do not get on an irregular boat looking for a home outside their land. "And there is no room for xenophobia or fanaticism. The Government of the Canary Islands and its president will fight it every day if someone intends to turn the islands into a message of xenophobia that has not resonated in society. We are going to continue fighting so that it does not resonate," he concluded.
