The Prosecutor for Immigration in Las Palmas, Teseida García, responded this Friday during an interview with Radio Televisión Española in Canarias to the proposal by the Canarian president Fernando Clavijo to return unaccompanied migrant minors born in Morocco who arrive on the islands in boats to their countries of origin.
Teseida García has argued that this measure is "totally legal" and that it is included in article 35 of the Immigration Law. However, she assures that it is "impossible to comply with." Specifically, point two of this article states that "the autonomous communities may establish agreements with the countries of origin aimed at ensuring the care and social integration" of minors "in their environment of origin," but always following "the protection of the interest" of these children and with mechanisms that ensure their "adequate monitoring."
According to the statements given on this channel, Teseida García has pointed out that already in 2008 there was an attempt to repatriate more than a hundred migrant minors, "there were countless repatriation procedures that none could be carried out, because it is a very complicated procedure," she added.
The Immigration Law includes the possibility that unaccompanied minors can be returned to their families or transferred to juvenile centers in their countries of origin, but "it is a long procedure" in which a series of requirements must be met, such as giving the minor a hearing, following individualized procedures to analyze the case of each child or adolescent, and granting them a judicial defender. Furthermore, all of this must be done before the 90-day period available expires.
For his part, according to the statements collected this Friday by the Efe Agency, the Canarian president Fernando Clavijo has given the Government of Spain and the Popular Party "two weeks" to respond to the situation of minors under the tutelage of the regional Executive, or else he has threatened to "make his own decisions."
After visiting the senior center in Gran Canaria, Clavijo assured that the PP "has not officially communicated that it will not sit down again" at the table where the Canary Islands were negotiating with them and with the central government a mechanism that would allow the distribution among all the Spanish autonomous communities of the 6,000 unaccompanied migrant minors that the archipelago is currently under its tutelage.
"I am waiting for next week to be able to clarify with the vice president María Jesús Montero some terms on financing and, from there, the Canary Islands will make their own decisions, depending on what happens," he assured.
