The Inter-Island Migrar Network, made up of several associations and groups, has denounced the “serious situation" that is being seen in the reception centers for unaccompanied migrant minors dependent on the Government of the Canary Islands, where it assures that there are “cases of mistreatment, illegal detentions, poor conditions and minors housed in resources for adults and vice versa.”
“There are a multitude of centers managed by many associations and foundations that receive very significant amounts for the care of minors and that are not controlled at all by the administration. We are talking about a real business that moves millions of euros a year and that does not guarantee the rights of many of the minors welcomed, we are talking about mistreated children, illegal confinement, inhuman treatment,” he maintains.
For this reason, the Inter-Island Network requests an investigation and demands that the reception conditions of unaccompanied minors be controlled, the delimitation of responsibilities and that the Government of the Canary Islands “take responsibility once and for all for the effective guardianship of minors and stop blaming third parties for their own incapacity.”
“Inadmissible” statements from Child Protection
In a statement, the group recalls that the general director of Child and Family Protection of the Canary Islands has made public that the islands are currently hosting 2,819 unaccompanied minors and that “their capacity has reached its limit.” In addition, she stated that since there are no more places, minors must remain in the CATEs and police stations, and enter resources for adults.
“It is unacceptable that despite the knowledge that the minor centers and the General Directorate of Childhood have of the existence of children with passports and/or birth certificates that prove that they are of legal age, they keep them in minor centers, occupying places that could be used by them,” they respond from the Network.
In this regard, they point out that this is the case of a new complaint to the Ombudsman of the Assembly to Support Migrants of Tenerife, which refers to the situation in the Temporary Care Center for Minors of El Hierro, managed by the Coliseo Association. “It is the result of the accusation of the inmates themselves, who declare that they are being held for up to five months in the center under a closed regime, even though they are of legal age and have documentation that proves it, with the excuse that they are pending bone tests to determine their age,” he adds.
“By sending these children to adult reception places as appropriate, there would be many places free in minor centers, and the General Director of Childhood could stop alarming by assuring that these minors will sleep in police stations, as the Inter-Island Network understands that the director has other pressure tools without having to violate the rights of children,” the group questions.
Response "with reprisals" to complaints
In the letter to the Ombudsman about the El Hierro center, “mistreatment and punishments, forced confinement, lack of warm clothes and footwear” are also denounced, and even that a minor “threw himself out the window in desperation, as already happened at the Puerto Bello Minor Care Center in the south of Gran Canaria.”
In addition, the complainants assure that those responsible for Coliseo in this center “have responded with reprisals against the inmates on the occasion of a hunger strike to protest their situation, as well as after the visit of the Ombudsman last November, for telling what was happening.”
“Another fact confirmed through the testimonies of the people inside these centers and the support groups is the hiring of unqualified personnel by the associations that manage the reception of minors, sometimes looking for profiles aimed at controlling and punishing, not caring for, the children inside,” warns the Inter-Island Migrar Network.
In addition, they emphasize that “the recent news about the death in strange circumstances of Barrag, a 17-year-old Moroccan boy living on the street, apart from a police investigation, has triggered a journalistic investigation that points out what the victim and Somos Red de Gran Canaria had already denounced, the alleged mistreatment and irregularities committed in the Puerto Bello center for minors, managed by the Respuesta Social Siglo XXI Foundation.”
“Many of the complaints about the existence in the center of habitual practices incompatible with respect for human rights, which were already public, and which are now reiterated by former workers in statements to the media ‘elcierredigital’, suggest that these practices could constitute a crime and, surprisingly, that the general directorate has not opened an investigation and determined responsibilities,” they denounce.
On the other hand, in response to the complaint about the situation of a minor in a minor care center in Fuerteventura, the Ombudsman states that in his visits to unaccompanied minor centers in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lanzarote and El Hierro “it was possible to verify the delay in the procedures for determining the age of the minors, the lack of schooling and processing of their residence, as well as the inadequate conditions of some of the centers visited.”
Likewise, the Network adds, “the response confirms the presence of minors in adult centers and adults in minor centers, with documentation that proves these circumstances, a complaint that has been made by different groups on the islands since 2020, the last case detected a few days ago in the Las Raíces Camp with, at least, three children in a resource for adults.”
"On the street" when reaching the age of majority
From the Inter-Island Network they also denounce that the minor centers leave “on the street” the people who reach the age of majority, without being transferred to centers for adults, “despite the fact that there are many places available.” After asking for explanations from the minor centers, he states that “they explain that the Ministry of the Interior does not give them permission to be transferred to centers for adults, while, on the other hand, the General Director of Childhood responds ‘that this does not happen’, demonstrating once again how far she is from reality.”
“This is just a sample of what is happening in the reception resources, places, on the other hand, of which there is hardly any news due to their characteristics and the supposed protection of minors,” adds the Network, which highlights that what it has been able to confirm is that these centers charge 95 euros per minor per day, “a very high price for a service that is, in many cases, deficient.”
“According to the General Director herself, there are still 1,304 minors pending to determine their age, children who are not schooled, who are not given their residence papers due to the provisional situation they are living in, in some cases for months. The bone test itself chosen to determine age is known to have a margin of error of up to two years, when many of the children have documentation that proves their age and that there are other less invasive procedures, such as interviews with professionals,” they insist.
“The Network does not add up the accounts of the general directorate on the lack of places for minors, but more than one association is sure to add up, and a lot, the accounts of the money received for a more than questionable management”, he warns.
According to him, “another violation of rights that continues to occur with minors is the separation of children from their mothers, when they arrive in separate boats for having left the place of origin at different times.” In this regard, they explain that “despite the fact that they have passports and/or birth certificates that confirm their relationship, they keep them separated, often in centers on different islands, instead of reuniting them until it is verified that they are family.”
“From the reception of migrants by the police, to the guardianship system for minors of the Ministry of Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth of the Government of the Canary Islands, the rights of unaccompanied migrant children are systematically violated by the institutions,” he denounces, highlighting that “in particular the General Directorate of Child Protection is responsible for their guardianship and, therefore, for the abuses, mistreatment, poor conditions, delays in age determination tests, presence of minors in centers for adults and, on the contrary, retention of adults who have stated and accredit it, in care centers for minors.”
Among the groups that are part of the Network and that support this complaint are the Solidarity Network with Migrants of Lanzarote, Assembly to Support Migrants of Tenerife, Canary Islands Free of CIE, Somos Red Gran Canaria, Proyecto Frontera Sur, Red Canaria for the Rights of Migrants and Non-Violent Direct Action.
