The Supreme Court has required the Government to assume, within a "non-extendable" period of 15 days, the reception of foreign minors seeking asylum who are in the Canary Islands, as ordered by the High Court last March.
The Contentious-Administrative Chamber makes this request after receiving a letter from the Government of the Canary Islands that warned of the "insufficient rate of execution" of the precautionary measure adopted by the Supreme Court, by which the central administration must take charge of a thousand of these minors.
This is the third warning that the Supreme Court has issued to the Government since March, when it ordered it to take in minors who require international protection, at which time it set a deadline of 10 days to comply with this measure, as noted in the ruling, issued last Tuesday.
More than seven months after that order, the Supreme Court considers it "evident" that, as the Canary Islands argues, "the pace of execution of said mandate is manifestly inadmissible," and gives a new ultimatum to the General State Administration to comply with the order to take in these minors "without any possibility of excuse or objection."
The central government initiated the first transfers of minor asylum seekers to the peninsula last August, but the Canary Islands has denounced the slow pace of these referrals. As of October 21, they put the number of minors transferred by the government at 191, and the number of these children still being cared for by regional services at 899.
The Supreme Court calls for urgent measures to be taken
The court urges the Executive Branch to urgently adopt whatever measures are necessary, thus responding to the complaints from the Canary Islands, which warned that the "overcrowding" situation of minors in their facilities was being maintained and has even increased due to the arrival of more minors in the same situation.
The Court reproaches the lack of a firm and definitive decision to integrate the minors into the National Reception System for International Protection (SNAPI) and does not foresee that this result, their integration into the system, will occur with the "slow pace" of the actions.
On the other hand, the Canary Islands has informed the Supreme Court that the Government intends to carry out the referrals following the criteria of the reform of the immigration law, for which reason it fears a further delay.
In this regard, the Supreme Court points out that what is relevant is that the Government implements the measures to which it is obligated and not the means to do so, provided that the best interests of the child are protected.
The Supreme Court warned of possible sanctions
In its demands for the Government to comply with the imposed precautionary measure, the Supreme Court warned it in June that if it did not comply with the order, it could impose coercive measures on those responsible, and in its latest order in this regard, it has recalled the warning about possible "admonishments."
The Supreme Court also ordered the Canary Islands and the Executive to inform it every 15 days about the process, and again urged the State to comply with its mandate last July.
The minors that the central administration must take into its system are children and adolescents who have migrated alone, without adult guidance, through dangerous journeys and present multiple vulnerabilities, as they have requested international protection in Spain because they suffer persecution in their countries or fear suffering serious harm if they return to their place of origin.
