Calls to the Gender Violence Victim Assistance Service 1-1-2 in the Canary Islands have increased by 17% in the last year. This was reported by the Canary Islands Institute for Equality in a press release published this Thursday. In total, 17,659 alerts have been registered, of which on 730 occasions the victim was a person with a disability.
In the particular case of Lanzarote, 1348 calls were registered, only behind the most populated islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
By type of service, 58% were emergency calls, which involved imminent danger for the victim, 19% were urgent (priority situation) and 23% were for information.
These calls forced the activation of emergency devices on 2,419 occasions and immediate shelter had to be given, to protect them from the abuser, to 371 women and 202 girls and boys. 9,800 police and 795 health resources were also mobilized.
48% of the aggressors were the partner, and 26% the ex-partner, 18% did not specify it and the rest were the son, the father, friend or stranger.
215 victims in 2023 were minors, 3,609 were between 18 and 35 years old; 4,421 between 36 and 55 years old; 961 between 56 and 75 years old and 102 women were between 76 and 97 years old.
The director of the ICI, Ana Brito, highlights “the importance of alerting 112 to any indication of violence or doubt, it is best to call; in this service there is a team of professionals who always offer information, guide and give alternatives to the thousands of doubts or concerns that a woman has when she is feeling violated in her own home, it is not necessary to report to the courts to receive protection through emergency devices, there is no small violence, and no matter how much remorse the abuser expresses, experience tells us that they always relapse.”
The head of the ICI also insists on “the great difficulty that victims have in recognizing that they are suffering gender violence, or the lack of will that continued abuse and humiliation has caused them”, which is why she values “the vital importance that people from the environment, family, friends, neighbors, or anyone who witnesses a violent situation, alert 112.”
50 calls a day in December
In the month of December alone, 1,565 calls were received, which meant an average of 50 calls per day, 21% more than in December 2022. The highest percentage, 58%, referred to acts of physical violence and 5% were for sexual assaults.
The largest volume of calls was made by the victim herself, but, as was already detected in the month of November, the percentage of calls from accidental callers in December accounted for 30% of the total, above the usual average.
At the state level, the Canary Islands was the second community in percentage of women who made the most calls to the state telephone information line on gender violence 016, the rate per million women over 15 years of age made from the islands was 624.6, well above the average of 398.
As of November 30, the security forces and bodies are monitoring 5,530 active cases in the Canary Islands through the VIOGEN system, one of the women at extreme risk and 54 at high risk.
Attention to victims of gender violence 016
This telephone assistance service, financed by the Canary Islands Institute for Equality (ICI), is provided from the operating rooms of the Emergency and Security Coordinating Center, CECOES 1-1-2, throughout the territory of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
If you have any questions or need information on gender violence, you can consult the Network of resources that the ICI maintains in agreement with the rest of the administrations on all the islands, these are free, confidential and it is not necessary to have a prior complaint to go to them in search of help or information, whatever your situation, circumstances or nationality.
