The superior prosecutor of the Canary Islands, Jaime Serrano-Jover González, has defended this Friday a legislative reform that allows courts to prosecute serious crimes committed during migratory journeys outside Spanish jurisdictional waters, especially when no other State claims their investigation.
During the presentation of the Prosecutor's Office's report for 2025 before a commission of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Serrano-Jover warned of the difficulties in acting against murders and sexual assaults committed in these circumstances and the risk of them going unpunished.
The prosecutor referred to problems that arose in Lanzarote with cases of sexual assault that occurred outside Spanish jurisdictional waters and assured that the Public Prosecutor's Office has explored all its possibilities for action within legal limits.
"We have stretched it to the limit," he said to describe the attempt to prosecute these crimes, but he specified that the Prosecutor's Office cannot act against what is established in Article 23 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary, which regulates the circumstances for attributing jurisdiction to Spanish courts.
As he explained, the Supreme Court has pointed towards the possibility of assuming the investigation of events that occurred in international waters when no other State claims it, but he considered that this path requires a "very forced" interpretation and argued that an express modification of the norm would be necessary.
Serrano-Jover pointed to cases in which people traveling on boats, including minors, are thrown overboard alive, and warned that acts of "extraordinary gravity" and "extraordinary violence" can go unpunished.
Difficulties with the European Migration Pact
The prosecutor also called for greater coordination between the central government and the Canary Islands executive to assist unaccompanied migrant minors and pointed out jurisdictional issues pending resolution in the application of the European migration pact.
In particular, he alluded to the difficulties in determining who should accompany minors during triage and explained that these individuals should have no connection or participation in other phases of the procedure.
"We are not implementing the matter under the conditions expressly set out in the migration pact that entered into force on June 12, 2026," he assured.
The prosecutor has indicated that jurisdictional discrepancies persist regarding these triages that could end up in court, when the desirable outcome is for both administrations to reach an agreement.
Regarding the 2025 report, he explained that the Canary Islands prosecutor's offices processed 1,106 age determination files, of which 373 corresponded to Las Palmas and 733 to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in addition to 3,004 guardianship files.
As for the crimes of aiding irregular immigration, in Las Palmas 26 sentences were issued, all of them convictions except one, while in Santa Cruz de Tenerife 129 preliminary proceedings were initiated and 14 accusations were formulated for aggravated forms of these crimes.
When asked about the impact of immigration on the commission of crimes, Serrano-Jover replied that he does not have data and rejected the usefulness of establishing a link that, as he pointed out, is not proven and does not contribute to solving the problems.
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