The Cabildo of Lanzarote has closed this weekend the facilities of the La Santa hostel as a reception center for unaccompanied foreign minors (UFM). This was announced by the president of the first Island Corporation, Oswaldo Betancort, who explains that "the decision to definitively close this center has been carried out in collaboration with the Government of the Canary Islands, since the facilities do not meet the minimum conditions of habitability or security to accommodate these minors."
For the Lanzarote president, "the model for the care of these human beings, who risk their lives every day to come here, is not the model that was implemented here in La Santa, with a macro-center with nearly 150 minors when we came to the Government in July 2023. Our objective in these months has been to work on a closer and more professionalized care and reception model, and therefore, what we have done is redistribute these minors to other resources, both inside and outside the island."
Oswaldo Betancort has also expressed his satisfaction with the definitive closure of this center "to return the use of the hostel to its original purpose, a space for leisure and coexistence for young people from Lanzarote and La Graciosa." In addition, the president also has words of gratitude to the City Council of Tinajo for "its invaluable help throughout these years and the solidarity shown by the entire municipality, especially the residents of La Santa."
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare of the Government of the Canary Islands, Francisco Candil, emphasizes his gratitude to the Cabildo and the City Council of Tinajo "for their good disposition in the face of the migratory crisis we are experiencing throughout the Canary Islands and points out that "the objective of the regional Executive is to improve the resources for the care of these foreign minors towards a new model with smaller and more familiar centers."
In this sense, the island councilor of Social Welfare, Marci Acuña, highlights that the closure of the La Santa hostel has been possible because "in these months of government, new reception centers for migrant minors have been created in the different municipalities of the island with the aim of covering, with guarantees, the care that these young people need."
Acuña also emphasizes that "this objective has been achieved in a context that is not favorable, with the arrival of record numbers of pateras, more than 190 in the year 2023, and having to manage the care of nearly a thousand unaccompanied minors who arrived in Lanzarote."
The councilor adds that "recently, both in the Island Social Action Table and in the Mayors' Table, the strategy of continuing with the implementation of small centers to temporarily accommodate these adolescents was transferred to all the municipalities, thus promoting more familiar and safe environments that guarantee their development, well-being and integration." Acuña also thanks the Government of the Canary Islands for their help in the distribution and transfer of these minors to other islands, as well as "the decision to transfer to the regional Executive the powers of the first reception that, until now, was done by the Cabildo of Lanzarote itself."
Hostel reform plan
The commitment of the Cabildo of Lanzarote is to return this space to the young people of the island and, for this, from the Youth Area, directed by Aroa Revelo, a plan for the recovery and revitalization of this hostel will be promoted. Likewise, the first Corporation is already working on the comprehensive reform project of the facilities.
The island councilor of Youth, Aroa Revelo, explains that "the recovery of the La Santa hostel greatly favors the young people of Lanzarote and La Graciosa who will have a large space for recreational, sports or cultural activities."
For his part, the mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, values the work carried out by this new group of Government, "after the unfulfilled promises of the Socialist Party for years." "Finally, I can thank the men and women of their word, such as Oswaldo Betancort, Marci Acuña, Aroa Revelo and President Fernando Clavijo, for responding to a serious problem we had in La Santa."
"From now on," concludes the mayor, "we are once again at the disposal of the Cabildo to recover this space, do those works that are necessary and allocate the facilities of this great hostel, one of the largest in the Canary Islands, for the leisure, culture or sport of our young people."
