The Government of the Canary Islands continues its struggle to get the rest of the Spanish autonomous communities to compulsorily take in migrant minors who have arrived on the islands. In this regard, a sectoral table will take place this Wednesday, July 10, in Tenerife, bringing together the autonomous communities and the Government of Spain to tackle the reform of the Immigration Law.
While the Popular Party has adopted part of Vox's discourse as its own, asking the Spanish Government to send out the Army to stop the arrival of boats, something that the Navy itself has already rejected; the PSOE and Coalición Canaria do not find the support of Feijoó's party to push forward the reform of Article 35.
All this in the shadow of Santiago Abascal, who threatens to break his pacts in all the communities where he governs together with the PP, if the Popular Party approves the mandatory distribution, against his "migration pact" with Vox.
The coordinator of the Specialized Center and Family Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Carmelo Hernández, has given an interview to La Voz to explain the situation of migrant minors hosted in Lanzarote, also in the eye of the storm in recent months, due to the conflicts and shortcomings of the La Santa shelter and the recently known complaint of the Casa del Mar.
"No administration is planning to establish macro-centers," the technician begins at the beginning of the interview. These macro-centers, such as the La Santa shelter, with a capacity for more than a hundred adolescents, are part of the responses that the institution gives "forced by the urgency." Despite this, smaller spaces, with capacity for smaller groups, allow "to address the needs that the kids present to you."
Currently, of the more than 5,500 children and adolescents who are hosted throughout the archipelago, only 200 are distributed in resources on the island of volcanoes. Something that the president of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales (NC), has already reproached, demanding the regional government a "more equitable" distribution among all the islands.
According to the data provided by Hernández, these minors are distributed in five centers exclusively for the reception of foreign children and adolescents under the guardianship of the Government of the Canary Islands. The Prosecutor's Office already requested last May the closure of one of them, the Casa del Mar in Arrecife. In addition, there are children who are registered in other children's centers on the island that are not exclusively for migrant children.
The foreign children and adolescents hosted in Lanzarote are of different nationalities, although most of them come from Morocco. On the island, children who have suffered different realities and from places as diverse as Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Conakri and even South Africa coexist.
The greater presence of Maghrebi minors is due to the proximity of Lanzarote to the Alawi country. It is more frequent that inflatable boats and wooden boats arrive on the island of volcanoes, compared to this, the colorful canoes from Mauritania or Senegal usually arrive on the westernmost islands, dragged by the tides.
Thus, the Cabildo of Lanzarote states that its idea is that children who have arrived on the island without the company of their parents can be relocated to non-differentiated children's centers to promote their integration.
"Where they are located, they are inserted and become part of the social and community dynamics." For example, in Yaiza, the minors try to participate in all possible activities organized by the municipality itself, in addition to being part of the different sports clubs.
In addition, the only center for migrant children currently under the guardianship of the Cabildo of Lanzarote is one of recent opening, with a temporary reception capacity for 12 children.
Schooling and the future job
With data provided by Hernández this past Friday, in Lanzarote 90% of migrant minors are immersed in a process of training or job placement, in the process of being hired or with a labor contract. Meanwhile, 10% are not yet within these processes, pending some management, because they have recently arrived or because they are over 16 years old and are outside the age of compulsory schooling.
"Most of them arrive undocumented, which means that we have to be at the expense of an age determination that depends on the Prosecutor's Office and until we have that age reference on occasions, it is a bit complicated to start the procedures," says the coordinator of the Specialized Center and Family Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
However, he defends that "since it is possible, the children are registered and registered in the Canarian Health Service and in the educational system, sometimes taking as a reference the age they state and on other occasions the one that the bone age determination itself throws."
"The idea is that they are all schooled, despite the problems with the documents," indicates the coordinator of Insular Minors, also that they are "registered, registered in Social Security and in educational centers."
Unaccompanied minors when they reach the age of majority
While it is true that when it comes to minors under 17 years of age, this process must be done in much less time before they leave the centers, so we seek to advance in a training aimed at employment, rather than in their entry into educational centers.
Carmelo Hernández highlights that they try to ensure that the young people who leave the protection system when they reach the age of majority are regularized. "When they turn 18, they have to face and manage, with all the guarantees, resources and tools that they have been able to offer, their life more or less independently," he adds.
Despite this, in the complaint filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office and which has led the Diputación del Común to begin investigating ex officio the situation of migrant minors housed in the Casa del Mar in Arrecife, it is stated that "several adolescents leave the center without having the appropriate documentation processed and the information regarding their rights and obligations." In addition, they assure that the regularization of the documentation "is usually used by the director as a means of coercion."
The lack of supervision in the resources of migrant minors has come to light after the complaint filed by two lawyers from Lanzarote Loueila Sid Ahmed and Irma Ferrer against the shortcomings of the Casa del Mar center in Arrecife. At this point, Carmelo Hernández prefers not to respond to this case, as it is a resource under the guardianship of the Government of the Canary Islands.
At this point, Hernández defends that "there is an audit to try to ensure that the projects are developed in the best possible way, there will always be difficulties. It is inherent in the signing of the contract that there is supervision so that the project ends well." In addition, he highlights that the centers are visited from the first island institution to find out what their status is.
"Educationally, we work hand in hand with the teachers and directors of the educational teams, there is daily communication. We attend to the minors in the area itself to inform and follow their regularization process, there are mechanisms through which the Cabildo and the area obtain information," concludes Hernández.
Meanwhile, in the case of conflictive profiles, which pose a danger to other resource partners and to the caregivers of the centers, there is "a fairly clear action protocol" and a "direct" communication with the Prosecutor's Office, the State Security Forces and Bodies and the judicial authority.