The Government of the Canary Islands considers that the implementation of the EU's European Pact on Migration and Asylum requires "more solidarity, greater funding, real protection for minors and considering the Atlantic dimension of migration, but above all understands that it is necessary to give a voice to border regions in migration policies". Otherwise, the agreement "will not be effective".
This was stated by the Deputy Minister of the President's Cabinet, Octavio Caraballo, at the meeting of the working group on Migration of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CRPM) held this Tuesday in Brussels.
Caraballo expressed his concern about the possible repercussions for the islands of the agreement signed between the 27 and insisted on demanding specific measures from Europe for border regions in the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which will come into force next June. He also regretted that "the real impact and the effects that its application will have on the archipelago, a community" -he said-, which "suffers very high pressure, while the mechanisms towards other autonomies and towards other member states remain insufficient”.
In this regard, he reiterated the need for the Canary Islands, as a border zone south of Europe, to be included in the design of European migration policy and in the European Union-Africa forums. In his view, “those of us who manage the migratory challenge on the front line must participate in the decisions.”
Also, he again proposed that the EU formally recognize the Atlantic Route as a specific differentiated migratory system from the flows in the Mediterranean and, consequently, design its own strategies for prevention, rescue and cooperation, as well as its adaptation to journeys of more than 2,000 kilometers in precarious vessels.
Prolonged stays
He recalled that the Triage Regulation contemplated in the Migration and Asylum Pact obliges to carry out prolonged controls, a circumstance that can keep migrant people for a period of up to six months in the Canary Islands (12 initial weeks that can be extended another 12 weeks), when currently the average stay is one month. This extreme is “untenable for a limited and fragmented territory like the archipelago,” which is why the deputy minister insisted that it is necessary that the autonomous community participate in the design of migration policies that contemplate its reality.
Caraballo, in line with what the Government of the Canary Islands has maintained until now, was critical of the Pact as it has been approved because he considers that, if not corrected, its guidelines could worsen the pressure the archipelago is experiencing regarding migration. For this reason, he understands that in addition to giving an Atlantic focus to this phenomenon to contemplate the characteristics of the Canary Route and give a voice to the Union's border territories, "more funding and more solidarity from Brussels" is necessary.
In this regard, he/she/it deemed “fundamental” that the funds foreseen in the Pact be regionalized, so that common rules are made more flexible and financing is adapted to the conditions of the archipelago. Otherwise, he/she/it insisted, the Pact “will not work.”
Rejection to outsource the reception centers
Octavio Caraballo insisted on the "concern" generated in the autonomous Government not knowing the real scope that the agreement will have in the islands and expressed his conviction that the application must include automatic mechanisms for the rapid transfer of migrants from the Canary Islands to the peninsula and other Member States, especially for outermost regions and areas of high migratory pressure. Likewise, he warned of the risk that the new procedures could turn the Canary Islands into a detention space and criticized the lack of information offered so far in this regard.
He/She emphasized that, despite the decrease in the arrival of migrants coming from the west coast of Africa so far this year, it is "indispensable that Europe keeps its gaze on the Sahel, an area of great political and social instability whose consequences could have an impact on the islands with an increase in migratory flows".
Regarding migrant minors traveling alone -currently around 3,000 young people are under the guardianship of the Government of the Canary Islands-, he understands that it is a priority to create a European system for the protection of unaccompanied minors, with mandatory and rapid relocation, stable funding for reception, education and mental health care, as well as common guardianship standards in all states. “We must have guarantees that there are no cracks in the care and reception of minors,” stated the vice-counselor during his intervention at the meeting of the CRPM Migration working group held this Tuesday in Brussels.
Exclusion of the national plans
Caraballo also expressed his concern about the exclusion of the Canary Islands from the national plans drawn up by the State for the application of the Pact. He regretted in this regard that, despite being the community most affected by maritime arrivals and bearing a much greater migratory pressure than the rest of the country, “the Canary Islands have not been consulted in the preparation of the plan to implement the Pact”.
This circumstance, he said, only hinders the effectiveness of the planned policies, in addition to limiting the capacity of the State to design a response adjusted to the reality of the territories that are on the front line of migratory management.
In their judgment, there is still time to generate a multi-level governance pact that includes the participation of the regions in the European Pact on Migration and Asylum in which solidarity “is mandatory, not voluntary”. For this, he said, a joint declaration by the CRPM is important to set “common red lines in the implementation of the agreement”.