Employees of the migrant minor center of Mácher, in Tías, have brought to the attention of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Public Prosecutor's Office the "lack of protection" suffered by children and adolescents under the guardianship of the Canarian Executive who are staying in this space on the island of Lanzarote. This was reported by the newspaper El País and has been confirmed by La Voz. Meanwhile, the current management of the center denies the situation and assures that the inspections carried out by the Canarian Government have been favorable and that the resource functions with "normality."
This space is managed by the entity Fundación para el Estudio y la Promoción de la Acción Social (FEPAS), whose work was already at the epicenter of the controversy in the center for foreign minors of La Santa, in Tinajo, which it administered from March 2022 until its closure last year 2024.
This company manages the Mácher center since November 1, 2023. Initially, the hiring carried out by the General Directorate of Protection for Children and Families of the Canarian Government was for 195,210 euros for the first year, according to State Contracting. However, the contract has been extended due to the emergency in the midst of the struggle of the Canarian Government and state parties to reach an agreement and approve the reform of article 35 of the Immigration Law and the mandatory distribution of migrant minors.
According to the letter issued by "a large part of the educational team" of this center to the General Directorate and the Prosecutor's Office this January, the minors who reside in this space suffer "disinterest, sorrow and feeling abandoned by all institutions." In some cases, they point out that children and adolescents have "lost weight," as well as suffered "anxiety, much sadness and apathy" due to problems in the management of the resource.
In contrast, sources close to the current management of the space have assured that "the current situation has improved," that the minors "are well, what was broken has been repaired and there is no lack of food." In addition, they have attributed these complaints to "an attack against people who work with people."
The workers who have addressed the Canarian Government and have spoken with La Voz, place the beginning of the conflicts during last October when the previous director of the center went on vacation and the temporary management of the same was assumed by the coordinator of the FEPAS entity. In the fifteen days that the person in charge of the resource was away, these employees report that the amounts of food that were ordered were significantly reduced for the thirty minors who stay in the space, the proliferation of allegedly false complaints with the aim of removing the most conflictive minors from the property, as well as alleged continuous threats against the staff who raised their voices in the face of the situation. In this way, six people are on sick leave and two have resigned from their jobs.
"They even went a day without water," highlights an employee in a conversation with this editorial team. "The solution would be to sit down and talk with the students, tackle it from education, whether it is easier or more difficult, not go against them," continues the same testimony.
In the letter addressed to the General Directorate, the employees highlight that the coordination of the resource has tried to attribute to some minors crimes that "had not been refuted" and that, in a specific case, they managed to have an adolescent transferred to "a closed center" in Tenerife. Meanwhile, sources close to the current management point out that the protocol is "clear" against minors who break the rules. "A complaint is immediately filed," they have indicated.
The employees who presented the letter have highlighted that "the company took the opportunity to prepare the dismissal of the director," despite the fact that the complaints in the space "were from the vacations" and not from when she was in the center. The then director was removed at the end of October. After that, the same sources have pointed out that after "bad acts are rewarded", giving them money for expenses also to the minors who do not comply with the rules.
In this line, in protest on October 29, part of the minors of the resource went to the City Hall of Tías, where they slept outdoors to ask for the return of the director. "From that moment on, chaos begins to break out," they have indicated in the letter, since then "the educational project has been put aside, minors without food and without attending any training or extracurricular activities."
Change of address in the center: two versions
After the departure of the director, the center remained with an acting director, managed by the FEPAS coordinator, until December 2024. From then on, the direction was assumed by another person in charge. From the center, this entire situation has been denied and they have assured that the employees who have addressed the Insular Directorate of Childhood "have not been here" recently and that the situation denounced in the images "does not correspond to the current reality."
In addition, they have highlighted that the 26 minors who are currently staying in the center are attended by a staff of 21 employees, plus those who are on sick leave. They have also defended that all minors under 16 years of age are schooled and that the rest are trained in non-regulated education or in municipal projects. In addition, they receive Spanish classes. "There were things that were not right and we tried to change them. We are making a great effort so that the minors have the best opportunities that the system offers them," he indicated.
For the moment, the General Directorate of Childhood, dependent on the Ministry of Social Welfare of the Government of the Canary Islands and responsible for the center, has not commented on the situation.
