The National Police has been taking care of two minors rescued by Maritime Rescue from a boat while waiting for the Government of the Canary Islands to take charge of their reception since last Friday, as sources from the State Administration have informed EFE.
The two boys, who claim to be 14 and 16 years old, were rescued by the Guardamar Urania on Friday east of Lanzarote, after being located aboard a pneumatic boat with 47 adults. In that same rescue, the Urania rescued another group of 33 people in another boat, and transferred them all to Fuerteventura, given the level of saturation that the resources of Lanzarote had.
All of them, the 82, were accommodated on the same Friday at the Temporary Foreigner Attention Center (CATE) of Fuerteventura, a police facility designed for adults, in which immigrants can be detained for a maximum of 72 hours for their affiliation.
The sources have specified that, since Saturday, the two minors are alone in the CATE of Puerto del Rosario, because the 80 adults who arrived on land with them are already in reception resources of the Ministry of Migration network.
On the other hand, the two teenagers are waiting for an agent of the Autonomous Police of the Canary Islands or an official of the General Directorate of Child Protection of the autonomous community to come and take charge of them and transfer them to a center for minors.
From El Hierro, the Government Delegate, Anselmo Pestana, has said that there are still situations that they "do not understand" in the relationship with the Canarian Executive for the reception of minors.
"There has been some minor this weekend who has been in Fuerteventura for three days. I think they are picking them up today," Pestana said, referring to the boys from the CATE of Puerto del Rosario.
The Government Delegate stressed that he "understands" the pressure that the autonomous community is under, which already hosts almost 6,000 minors, but stressed that this is not "the best practice".
