Lanzarote only hosts 200 of the more than 5,500 unaccompanied migrant minors under the tutelage of the Government of the Canary Islands and the island councils. This is reported by the Minister of Social Welfare of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Marciano Acuña, to La Voz. Despite this, the Cabildo of Lanzarote, presided over by Oswaldo Betancort (CC), has declared "Social Emergency" on the island and the Canary Executive has asked Puertos de Las Palmas to cede "a space" in Los Mármoles to house the minors in tents.
Migrant children and adolescents who travel alone by boat to the Canary Islands or have been orphaned during the journey are at the center of the political debate. On the one hand, the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo (CC), has assured that he is desperate" to see if the reform of the Immigration Law goes ahead, so that African minors who arrive in the Canary Islands are distributed in different Spanish communities, while his main support in the Executive, the Popular Party, moves away from the possibility of reaching an agreement.
The president of the national PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has left it in the hands of the barons of his party to support the reform or not, gave wings to a hoax on Tuesday morning during an interview on Onda Cero. The popular leader assured that "migrant minors are wandering the Spanish streets" that the Government of Spain "puts on planes at night." However, just over 300 minors have been referred to other provinces in the last two years.
While the agreement does not arrive, the Canary Executive has denounced that it does not have the means to welcome all the children and adolescents who arrive through the Canary route. On the other hand, the shortcomings in the management of the Canary children's centers continue to come to light. Last week, the lawyers Irma Ferrer and Loueila Sid Ahmed brought to the attention of the Ombudsman and the Public Prosecutor's Office the shortcomings of one of the tutored centers of Lanzarote, the Casa del Mar of Arrecife, which has been open since last October.
This same Tuesday, the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has acknowledged that he is "ashamed" of the conditions in which the minors housed in this space, managed by the Samu Foundation and which the Executive promised to close a month ago, still live.
For the moment, the Port Authority of Las Palmas will provide the land next to the container that the Red Cross already has to assist immigrants arriving on the island from the African coasts." Despite this, the Prosecutor's Office has opposed this option and warns that it "will not allow the use of camps" on the docks to house minors.
