Dozens of travelers crowd at the exit of the César Manrique Airport. They queue at the conveyor belt and in the elevator to go to the tourist buses that will take them to the different hotels on the island. Among the rumble of suitcases, a Colombian couple cries in a room while talking to Social Services. The two and their four minor children have been since the morning of this past Wednesday, February 26, that is, more than 24 hours, sheltering in the Lanzarote Airport. They arrived on the island with the intention of requesting political asylum after fleeing the guerrilla in their country.
E.S. and O.S. and their four children between the ages of five and seventeen have spent the night in the facilities of the island's aerodrome after landing on a flight from Madrid on Wednesday morning, as they have narrated in an interview with La Voz. Staff from César Manrique and bus drivers have provided assistance and, according to them, the Airport Management has relocated them to a small room where drivers eat during their breaks.
On February 13, they arrived in the Spanish capital leaving behind years of violence and with the aim that the non-state armed forces would not recruit their two older children. Both minors had to stop going to school because the guerrillas were chasing them from school on motorcycles with the aim of capturing them and integrating them into their ranks. Many other classmates did not manage to escape, according to the testimony of both parents.
"I don't want more violence for my children, the kind they had to see with my brother, who was murdered, or with other people in our environment," says O.S., visibly shaken by the situation. They landed in Lanzarote hoping for an appointment at the Immigration Office to formally request political asylum and start a new life. Until now, they had slept at the Madrid Airport, surviving with the financial aid offered by passers-by. It was also thanks to this financial aid that they managed to pay for a flight to the Canary Islands, they say, driven by an Immigration appointment they found through the internet. Although for the moment, they do not find hope of starting a new life on the island of volcanoes either.
This family, which still lives with the consequences of violence, fears that their situation in Lanzarote will not be the halo of hope they imagined. For the moment, they continue to sleep in the aerodrome, helped by the island's bus drivers, who have provided them with some food and comfort. However, they have not yet found help from any institution or non-governmental organization to spend the night in a safe place.
Also, as they have told this newsroom, they run the risk of being separated from their children. "We fled Colombia so they wouldn't take them away from us and now they tell us they are going to take them because they can't be in these conditions. The girl, who suffers from a heart condition, will not be able to bear it," continues her mother.
For the moment, the father continues to contact all the organizations that are mentioned to him with the aim of finding a place to spend the night. In addition, they miss some hot food to eat.
Already last year, the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, urged the Ministry of the Interior to take urgent measures in the face of the collapse of the asylum appointment system: there are people who have been trying for months to get a first appointment, others with appointments for more than a year from now and situations of special vulnerability that do not have protection.
