The 2024 Report of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands states that the "main deficiency detected" in the Temporary Care Center for Foreigners (CATE) of Lanzarote, located in Arrecife, is "the already endemic provisionality" of the resource.
The document adds that this space, which serves to house migrants arriving on the island in precarious boats in the first 72 hours, "does not meet the necessary conditions for initial reception." Thus, it points out that it is "a plot of land where tents have been installed, without shade and without paving."
In addition, the Arrecife CATE has capacity for 300 people, although the Public Prosecutor's Office states that "it is normal for it to exceed its capacity."
Last year, the State Attorney General's Office urged the Spanish Government to create "permanent and dignified facilities" and criticized the use of this "plot of land lacking shade, made up of tents" to guard adults who arrive irregularly on the coasts of Lanzarote.
Custody of minors and the case of La Santa
The Prosecutor's Office Report in the Canary Islands highlights the "deplorable state" in which the La Santa Minors Center, now closed, was during the Ministry's visits in 2023. This space housed more than a hundred minors, most of whom were "pending age determination."
The report defends that the Las Palmas Prosecutor's Office "has reached an exquisite coordination" between the different actors involved in detecting migrant minors among the people who arrive on the islands.
The Public Ministry indicates that "the experience accumulated during these years has allowed the National Police, at the foot of the beach, to make an increasingly correct discrimination" between minors and adults. Meanwhile, it has pointed out that the instability of the staff of the Immigration Brigade of the National Police in Puerto del Rosario and Lanzarote has been addressed with consultations with specialized teams.
The Prosecutor's Office adds that "communication is also fluid" with NGOs. In this way, the coordination between entities serves to detect possible cases of adults in minors' centers and minors in adults' centers and avoid situations such as those experienced in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife where minors were interned in adults' centers.
