The Minister of Social Welfare of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Marciano Acuña, has responded to La Voz de Lanzarote about the situation of migrant minors under guardianship on the island.
Acuña argues that Lanzarote is in an "unprecedented situation." Currently, the Canary Islands is home to 4,500 migrant minors who arrived in the Archipelago alone, without the company of their parents. In particular, the counselor reveals that in Lanzarote there are around 250 children in the care of the Cabildo or the regional Executive.
In the agreement signed between the PSOE and Coalición Canaria, for the nationalist party to support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, the commitment was signed to carry out an equitable distribution among autonomous communities. However, the meeting of the Sectoral Conference on Migration, where the autonomies and the State were going to concentrate, was canceled ten days ago.
With data between January and November 15, 2023, the Ministry of the Interior had registered the arrival of 32,436 people to the Archipelago. The reception of migrants in the Canary Islands exceeded in 2023, the arrivals in the 2006 Cayucos Crisis. Most of the adults have already been referred to other resources in the Peninsula, while the referrals of minors have not been as fast, as they depend on the political will of the receiving institutions.
"We are breaking arrival records and currently we can be around 250 unaccompanied foreign minors," Marciano Acuña explained to La Voz. These minors are managed by the Government of the Canary Islands and others by the Cabildos, while the number of people in care on the island changes depending on the day due to referrals to other islands.
The Center of La Santa, where more than a hundred minors have been concentrated in recent months, is the first reception resource and also the one that concentrates the most children. However, there are five other devices spread across the island.
La Santa is the center that houses the most minors, exceeding one hundred children and adolescents this Thursday. "We try not to exceed one hundred, since it seems to us a quite high number," Acuña told La Voz.
More migrant girls arrive in Lanzarote
Thus, in recent weeks, more girls than usual have also arrived without being accompanied by any family member. On the night of last Wednesday, twelve girls and adolescents who traveled by boat to Lanzarote were rescued. These young women are between eleven and fifteen years old and come from Morocco. In this case, the girls are not transferred to the center of La Santa, but are separated from the boys and referred to specific resources.
In the Canary Islands there is a Family Foster Care plan aimed at promoting the foster care of minors under the guardianship of the Canarian Government. However, the older the minors are, the more difficult it is for them to be temporarily fostered.