A letter sent by a lawyer from the duty shift to the Public Prosecutor's Office reported on April 25 of an alleged case of child neglect in the migrant minor center unaccompanied children of Playa Honda, located on Volcán de Timafaya street, in San Bartolomé, which will be dismantled this week following an order from the Canary Islands Government.
Two days before this letter, the General Directorate of Childhood of the regional Executive decreed the closure of the temporary resource due to "poor conditions" and "inadequate management." According to sources from this organization, the center remains open and all minors have not yet been transferred, whose referrals are being made one by one. These same sources indicate that it is expected that all will have been relocated by this Tuesday.
In the letter sent to the Prosecutor's Office to which La Voz has had access, the space "openly violates the obligations of welcoming migrant minors, according to the testimony of a minor who reported the situation at the Civil Guard police station. It also states that the Center does not meet the conditions of a "safe environment" and "repeatedly fails to provide comprehensive attention," both educational and health-related.
In the videos that this editorial team has been able to access, you can see the center's bathroom without water in either the shower or the sink. In addition, there is overcrowding, with up to nine minors per room, as well as a deficit in resources, with damaged or broken doors.
In the aforementioned document, the duty lawyer indicates that the director of the space is the same one who directed the Casa del Mar in Arrecife. This space, according to the lawyer herself, was closed for "suffering from the same problems that are now being reported in Playa Honda." In this sense, she denounces that "the terrible management of a center denounced for unsanitary conditions and forced to close due to its multiple irregularities is rewarded, once again granting the management of another center."
The testimony of the minor who went to the Benemérita states that there are addictions among the users that "are not being taken into account, much less treated as they should be. To which is added the possible existence of "cases of acute depression, diabetes and episodes of self-harm without any measures having been taken in this regard."
In addition, the minors expose the lack of training, access to training, leisure, sports or cultural activities.
In the document, the lawyer urged the Prosecutor's Office to "adopt the appropriate measures" due to the "seriousness" of the events collected in the Civil Guard report and recalled that this situation "frontally violates" the principle of the best interests of the minor.
