The Government of the Canary Islands has given instructions to the Ministry of Social Welfare to request spaces in its facilities from Puertos del Estado to care for and accommodate migrant minors. In the case of Lanzarote, it will begin with the port of Los Mármoles. All of this, "given the situation of collapse and totally unsustainable" that the Community is going through.
In this way, government spokesman Alfonso Cabello announced this Monday at the press conference after the Governing Council meeting that it has been agreed to begin this process with Puertos del Estado and it will be analyzed in which places it is "most necessary" to enable these spaces.
Precisely, it is in Lanzarote, specifically in the Casa del Mar in Arrecife, where there is a center for migrant minors that has been in the news in recent days due to the situation in which the young people housed and the facilities find themselves, although Cabello has insisted that this decision "is not related to this fact because they have been warning about the situation of "migratory emergency" for a year."
"Without a doubt, we must close the Casa del Mar in Arrecife, and we will do so as soon as we can, but we must provide an answer to the 62 minors who are there," explained the spokesman for the Canary Islands Government.
When questioned about whether the controls and inspections in this type of facility had failed, Cabello assured that they had had to "go to the limit" and that the failure had occurred in the "response that the Government of Spain has given to the Canary Islands."
"What we need is a response and what has failed is that response from the State. It has not been possible through solidarity, with the referral of the 346 migrants that was agreed almost a year ago and of which only 16 minors have left (...). We need a solid and State response, a legal modification that binds and obliges the autonomous communities," he elaborated.
Ordered the closure of the Casa del Mar children's center "as soon as possible"
He also indicated that the autonomous Executive has an inspection service that works and that, precisely based on this, the closure of the Casa del Mar children's center has been ordered "as soon as possible", but seeking "first an alternative for these young people." The solution, he suggested, involves "lowering the pressure on the centers, not continuing to open them."
But while this happens, the Government of the Canary Islands has given instructions to its Ministry of Social Welfare to explore what places in the Ports of the State can be used to house the minors who arrive on the Canary Islands coasts.
Regarding how the arrivals are planned to be handled in the ports, it will be the Ministry itself that has to define the format (for example, whether tents installed in the facilities themselves will be used). "Without a doubt, we insist that it is not the best path, we have defended that they should be small and closer centers, like the 80 that we have been opening, but it is the limit situation that we are reaching that forces us to respond like this," he pointed out.
In addition, he lamented that the Government of Spain has set the sectoral conference on July 18, in which the reform of the Immigration Law will be addressed with the rest of the autonomous communities to urge a mandatory distribution throughout the rest of the country of the migrant minors who arrive.
"It's late, yes, but it's probably that June 1 was also late, because we've been dealing with this situation for months. It seems very important to work and consult with the rest of the autonomous communities on this matter, but it could have been done by decree law and then continue working on the parliamentary process to define it," concluded the spokesman.
