The wave of boats in Lanzarote and La Graciosa during this last weekend has overwhelmed the scarce reception resources available on the island, and tents have had to be installed next to the only warehouse currently enabled, in the municipality of San Bartolomé. In total, since Saturday, 18 boats with 555 immigrants have arrived, according to data provided by the Red Cross and the Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium. The last one arrived in the early hours of this Monday in the Alegranza area, and had to be intercepted by Salvamento and the Civil Guard.
"Those who arrive on our coasts are crammed into tents instead of being housed in decent facilities, simply because our leaders don't feel like it. The situation is unsustainable. The municipalities are being overwhelmed, they don't have the resources to be able to attend to all these people with dignity," they have criticized from the Canarian Coalition.
Meanwhile, neither the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands nor the Red Cross, which is in charge of caring for these people, have clarified where these immigrants are being referred to, as happened two weeks ago, when a strong arrival of boats was also concentrated in two days. "We don't know where they are and whether they are being transferred or not," they have reiterated from the Red Cross, despite the agreement it has maintained for years to care for these people.
For its part, the Government Delegation has limited itself to pointing out that the immigrants who arrived in the last three days "are in a shared management center in Lanzarote undergoing quarantine or in police facilities awaiting affiliation," before being sent to other islands, but they have not responded to how many have been concentrated and in what facilities. In this regard, La Voz has been able to confirm the installation of these tents, as well as the transfer of chemical toilets to the San Bartolomé warehouse, where migrants do not even have showers. Regarding the actual capacity of that warehouse, the Delegation has not responded either.
Most of the immigrants who arrive in Lanzarote end up being referred to other islands, but the main problem arises when several boats accumulate in one or two days, since these transfers are usually made when 72 hours have passed, among other things to wait for the result of the Covid PCR tests. Thus, that "provisional" warehouse in San Bartolomé can end up at double its capacity.
Three days of incessant arrivals
After a week in which the arrival of boats had decreased, one arrived on Friday morning in the Caletón Blanco area of Haría, and later another had to be rescued 15 miles off the coast of Lanzarote.
The early hours of Saturday were a time of intense work for the members of Maritime Rescue, who had to go out to rescue two boats detected near the island, while another arrived by its own means to the coast of Punta Mujeres. However, they would not be the only ones to reach the conejera coast, as up to four more did so throughout Saturday, having to be rescued by the Salvamar and disembarked in Órzola and at the Arrecife Commercial dock.
In addition, 270 immigrants in seven different boats also reached the coast on Sunday, two of them on the island of La Graciosa, which forced the Police to install tents in the San Bartolomé warehouse, to carry out the mandatory PCR tests as soon as possible, seeing the place overwhelmed by the massive arrival of immigrants to the island.
Finally, in the early hours of this Monday, a boat was detected in the area near the islet of Alegranza, which forced the Civil Guard and Maritime Rescue to go to the place, transferring them to the Arrecife Commercial dock.
