The migrant reception center that the Spanish Government will launch in Lanzarote has a similar capacity to the others existing in the Canary Islands, and is not large, according to the Government delegate in the islands, Anselmo Pestana.
It is a humanitarian care center dependent on the Ministry of Migration, similar to the one that currently hosts about 400 people in Montaña Mina, "perhaps with a little more capacity or with the capacity that can be deployed, but it is not a macro-center".
"All the Canarian authorities and all the NGOs in the Canary Islands have requested a network of stable centers to be able to attend with dignity to the people who arrive," Pestana defended, when asked about this issue before the technical meeting of the Coordination Authority against Immigration.
He also pointed out that the Canary Islands currently has about 5,000 reception places and the occupancy these days is at 50%.
The Government delegate said that the Ministry of the Interior is analyzing the possibility of increasing the number of agents to speed up the procedures that allow migrants to be referred to the Peninsula.
According to him, so far this year a total of 9,700 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands, which represents an increase of 700% compared to last year.
The unusual good weather for these dates and the calm at sea has favored these arrivals, Pestana stressed, who is confident that "there will be another evolution" in the coming months.
He also referred to the need to reach agreements with Mauritania, an objective that could be achieved with the trip of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to that African country, accompanied by the President of the European Union, Úrsula van der Leyen.
In Pestana's opinion, an increase in economic resources would allow Mauritania to control departures from its coasts.
"The most effective (control) is the one that is done near the emitting coasts," he stressed, as was done with Senegal with an airplane deployment "and it will also be done surely in Mauritania."
Regarding Senegal, the Government delegate considers that there is "a greater involvement of the Navy of that country, a much greater control on those coasts and that is why the pressure has also gone to the Mauritanian coast.
Despite this, the political instability in that country entails more economic problems and "greater despair in the population and make people try to leave".
"What we have to look for is the exit of regular migration, it is about not settling for a migration that arrives sponsored and ordered and taken advantage of by the mafias," he indicated.
"We have to avoid that, because if there are deaths and misfortunes on the way to the Canary Islands it is often due to the lack of means, due to insecurity, because the boats are overloaded," he continued.
The Government delegate believes that we cannot be satisfied: "We need the support of the countries of transit or emission of that migration and, then, obviously, adopt measures in which there is a reasonable orderly flow".
Because, in his opinion, "Europe needs labor to maintain its productive model and its social model."
