Coalición Canaria Lanzarote demands that the president of the Cabildo, Dolores Corujo (PSOE), "immediately proceed to close the La Santa shelter as a reception center for immigrant minors and stop endangering the safety of the people who reside in the aforementioned town."
According to the island secretary of CC, Migdalia Machín, "the serious incidents that occurred this weekend are the straw that broke the camel's back." “If the inhabitants of La Santa have been characterized by anything during all this time, it is by their solidarity and generosity because they understand that these people who arrive on our island aboard boats and canoes do so because they are looking for a better life. However, something that was going to be temporary has become permanent and the situation cannot continue like this,” says the nationalist leader, who insists that “the PSOE in the Cabildo, in the Government of the Canary Islands and in the State is responsible for ensuring the safety of our neighbors and they are not fulfilling that.”
"The socialists have not bothered", Machín points out, "to look for an alternative that really has everything necessary, both in infrastructure and security, to house these minors."
“To begin with, the facilities are not adequate. These minors enter and leave when they want and they also do not have any type of security or control,” Migdalia Machín stressed, clarifying that “we are sure that not all of them are to blame for the altercations and incidents that occur in La Santa, but measures must be put in place so that those who are controlled.”
The nationalist leader, who "demands the presence of the Canarian Police until they are transferred to another center, does not understand how an option that was going to be temporary has been extended over time and, what she understands even less, is the neglect of a PSOE that, once again, has not dared to act during all this time."
“The Cabildo has been using the La Santa shelter as a reception center for immigrant minors since the autumn of 2018 and at the beginning of 2019 an attempt was made to return the site to its original use. At that time we were in a situation of humanitarian emergency, and we all understood it, but it was supposed to be something temporary. However, the current government seems to have decided to keep it that way until the end of the term. They have had four years to find a viable alternative and there has been no way,” laments Machín.
Thus, she recalls that "Coalición Canaria has proposed alternatives such as the use of the Marqués de Herrera barracks (the famous Arrecife barracks); an option that the PSOE rejected, saying that this type of facility can only have military use, but that in other cases such as the Cuartel del Cristo in La Laguna, they will be used for the construction of public housing, as announced by Pedro Sánchez himself."
Likewise, the island secretary of CC regrets that "neither the president of the Cabildo nor the president of the Canary Islands have deigned to worry or carry out any type of public assessment in the face of the incessant arrival of boats to our islands during all this time."
“We are tired of sending press releases denouncing the PSOE's disinterest, we have demanded responses and actions from the governments of Lanzarote, the Canary Islands and the State, and we have always received silence in response,” recalls Machín, who emphasizes that “this weekend we have already witnessed a stone-throwing battle. What else has to happen for the PSOE to act?”
