Astrid Pérez calls for "serious and effective" involvement to face the migratory tragedy

The president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Astrid Pérez, has asked this Monday for "serious and effective" involvement of Spain and the European Union to face the "human tragedy" of the migratory route to the Canary Islands, with "adequate" diplomatic and cooperation mechanisms.

Pérez expressed herself in this way during the inauguration of the Conecta Canarias-Europa Conference on migration and asylum held in the Regional Chamber.

More material and human resources, greater coordination and a boost to European cooperation are needed, the president added.

In this sense, she insisted that the resources of the Canary Islands are "limited" to face a reality that requires global solutions.

"Every week lives are lost in our sea", Astrid Pérez stressed, who described the migratory increase as an "exorbitant escalation" that should be at the center of political and public debate.

"It is a situation that makes us look to the future with concern. We are the southern border of Europe and Spain and we need solidarity. We cannot become a cemetery of people and illusions or prison islands. We are a vulnerable and weak border," said the president of Parliament.

The reality of the Canary Islands, she added, prevents the establishment of control systems such as those of the continental borders, which makes it necessary to have more "technical and personal means so that the human drama does not continue to grow."

Astrid Pérez underlined "the nuclear position of the legislative power" to promote and lead initiatives that influence transcendental issues of society, "such as these conferences."

For the president of the Canary Islands Legislative Chamber, "the chaos in Niger", the subject of the first presentation, represents a "threat to international security" while calling for a look at what is happening in Senegal, mired in a political and social crisis, and Morocco, "the origin of many of the irregular immigration routes."