At least two women and one child were among the migrants who slept on the floor of the Puerto Naos dock in Arrecife, under police custody, on Monday night. This has been confirmed by the Government Delegation to La Voz. However, this editorial team has been able to verify that there were at least two minors in the provisional camp until this morning.
The arrival of more than 350 people in less than 24 hours in Lanzarote collapsed the only temporary shelter for foreigners on the island. The situation led the National Police to declare the Arrecife CATE full and request help from the Island Security and Emergency Consortium to install tents and mattresses on the dock where Maritime Rescue disembarks the survivors.
At the time of arrival on land, three people out of the 98 rescued on Monday night in Lanzarote were transferred to the hospital. Then, they rejoined the group.
Sources close to the process reveal that women and children are always usually transferred to health centers upon arrival on the island. However, once on land, the fact that women and children continue with the rest of the group and are not referred to other resources reserved for them is not usual.
Sources from the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands have assured La Voz de Lanzarote that at least 52 people slept "in beds with blankets and inside tents" during Monday night. Meanwhile, island sources estimate about 95 the number of people who slept on the Puerto Naos dock on mattresses. Until now, it had not been revealed that women and minors were among them.
Although the Delegation assures that there is only one minor, on Tuesday morning there was at least one baby and one child bathing with a jug of water next to the tents.
"What the norm or legality does not foresee is that what is happening now is being done, which is leaving them in this limbo, because since there is nowhere to put them, we put them here on this improvised tent. What answer are we giving, if we want to apply the Immigration regulations and if we want to respect the rights of the people. If the rights of the people are violated, everything else comes hand in hand: the assistance of a lawyer, the right to an interpreter and all the rights that assist them," says Loueila Mint El Mamy, a lawyer expert in Immigration.
"It borders on a legally dangerous limbo, because minors cannot be deprived of their liberty. It is something similar to what we saw in Arguineguín. Here the problem is the constant band-aid and patch because Lanzarote is the island that is receiving the most boats and the doubt arises of what will happen on days like now when the CATE is full. That there are already women in the resources and that women have to stay on the dock. It is not only a limbo between legality and illegality and constant improvisation, but it is totally immoral," she concluded.
For its part, the Department of Social Services of the Government of the Canary Islands, responsible for the reception of unaccompanied migrant minors, distances itself from the responsibility that these minors and the two women slept on the floor of the dock. Sources from the area defend that "the minors that the security forces have made available to the autonomous community are in accommodation resources and cared for".
