Lanzarote has received more than twenty boats in 2019, according to the Red Cross, which specifically assisted immigrants arriving on 23 boats to the island during the year.
Although the NGO does not make a total balance of the number of people who arrived in these boats to Lanzarote, it does so for those arriving to the Canary Islands as a whole. In this regard, the Red Cross states that in the archipelago it has assisted 2,176 immigrants so far this year (353 in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and 1,823 in the province of Las Palmas) who arrived in 105 boats (23 to Lanzarote, 63 to Gran Canaria, 10 to Fuerteventura and nine to Tenerife).
In Spain as a whole, the Immediate Response Teams in Emergencies (ERIE) for Humanitarian Aid to Immigrants have assisted more than 23,700 people arriving on the coasts of the country and Ceuta and Melilla this year.
ERIES
As explained by the NGO, the Red Cross teams, made up of nearly 2,300 volunteers, are deployed upon the arrival of boats to the Spanish coasts and offer basic aid (clothing, blankets, food, hygiene kits?) and socio-health care to these people in situations of extreme vulnerability, who arrive in very precarious boats, with problems of dehydration, hypothermia and injuries caused during the crossing.
The Red Cross teams also look for special risk situations, such as the identification of possible victims of human trafficking or the need for international protection.
With regard to the ERIES, it details that they are a model of specialized response to emergency situations designed to meet the needs of the victims through the execution of necessary tasks appropriate to these needs. Its objective is to make available to the administration a set of capacities that allow collaboration in minimizing the effects of emergencies and/or crises, alleviating human suffering, protecting health and the environment. The Red Cross currently has 70 ERIES (nine of them for Humanitarian Aid to Immigrants), with a team in each island in the Canary Islands.
92,000 migrants assisted through various programs
The Spanish Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that intervenes as an auxiliary to public authorities in humanitarian assistance and in the reception and integration of immigrants and refugees for more than 30 years. To this end, it carries out a good part of its actions through different agreements signed with the Secretary of State for Migration, under the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Social Security of the Government of Spain and in collaboration with public administrations at the state, regional and local levels.
Assisting immigrants is one of the priorities of the Spanish Red Cross by virtue of its commitment to the most vulnerable people. The Red Cross has assisted 92,000 migrants this year 2019 through various programs, such as comprehensive reception or the fight against Trafficking in Human Beings.
The NGO states that the Red Cross's assistance to immigrants and refugees and support in their reception and integration process is a reality "thanks to the irreplaceable commitment of more than 12,000 volunteers who collaborate selflessly, support them in their daily lives and generate a bond that favors their full participation so that they can be part of society".
