The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León Machín, has requested from the Government of Spain "more control of the maritime borders of the Canary Islands and that it activate urgent returns of immigrants to Morocco", as supported by the new EU Regulation. The mayor made these statements at the end of a meeting he held this Wednesday morning at the City Hall with the Secretary General of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), Luis Martínez-Sicluna, who conveyed to the mayor the Federation's willingness to articulate the necessary measures and demand greater involvement from the Government of Spain.
For Yonathan de León, the current situation in Ceuta, after the massive entry of people at the end of July, "with a clear neglect by the Central Government to help the Ceuta population, shows that Spain must urgently reinforce its territorial protection to defend and monitor its borders and territorial integrity". De León also emphasizes that the maritime borders of the Canary Islands, bordering Moroccan waters, "have no protection or surveillance".
The mayor reiterates his complaint that "Salvamar boats are transferred to Alawite waters to tow dinghies with illegal migrants to Lanzarote, when the logical thing, and with a sense of state, is that they be returned to the ports of Morocco from where these boats set sail".
Yonathan de León condemns that the Government of Spain "does not firmly apply the provision of the new EU regulation that allows the urgent deportation of immigrants who attempt to access illegally through the EU borders, with the Canary Islands, and its waters, being the most vulnerable territorial area of the EU, after the land borders of Ceuta and Melilla".
In this meeting, in addition to the Secretary General of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), Luis Martínez-Sicluna, participated the counselor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa and vice president of the FEMP for Immigration and Social Inclusion, Jacobo Medina.
This meeting has allowed to directly convey to the FEMP "the reality that Arrecife and Lanzarote are experiencing", as well as the needs that are being generated due to the "terrible conditions" of the CATE next to the Police Station - denounced by the Prosecutor's Office of the Canary Islands, and the high migratory pressure with the arrival of rafts, which may be accentuated this autumn with what is known in Lanzarote as "raft season". Yonathan de León conveyed to the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces possible avenues for collaboration and institutional claims before the Government of Spain.
The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, reiterated to the Secretary General of the FEMP the "concern of the City Council regarding the situation that the capital of Lanzarote has been enduring", especially in the port area of Puerto de Naos, where a good part of the disembarkations and attention devices are concentrated, as the base of Salvamar.
De León has been especially critical in recent months of the management of arrivals in Lanzarote and has repeatedly called for greater involvement of the State, as well as more human and material resources to face a reality that, in his opinion, "is having a direct repercussion on the city and its public services". The Arrecife City Council has warned of the "pressure that Lanzarote and other Canary Islands are enduring as a point of arrival and the need for a coordinated response among all administrations".
Luis Martínez-Sicluna: “The FEMP is at the disposal of Arrecife to claim the necessary measures and resources”
For its part, the Secretary General of the FEMP, Luis Martínez-Sicluna, conveyed to the mayor of Arrecife the Federation's willingness to accompany the City Council in those actions deemed necessary regarding the migratory situation.
Martínez-Sicluna will make the FEMP's instruments of dialogue and representation available to the City Council to articulate the necessary measures and to demand from the Government of Spain greater involvement and an adequate response to the needs of the municipalities that are directly bearing the migratory pressure.
“The city councils are the closest administration and cannot be left alone in the face of a reality of this magnitude. From the FEMP, we are at the disposal of the Arrecife City Council to listen to its needs, accompany it in its demands, and convey to the Government of Spain those measures that are necessary so that municipalities have the resources and support they require”.
The Secretary General will also emphasize the FEMP's role as a space for coordination and representation of local governments, especially in situations requiring cooperation from different levels of administration.
Jacobo Medina: “We are going to continue working so that Lanzarote is heard and so that the response to immigration does not fall on the municipalities”
The counselor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa and vice-president of the FEMP on Immigration and Social Inclusion, Jacobo Medina, will highlight the importance of the reality of Lanzarote being known and analyzed directly by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.
Medina will emphasize that this meeting "represents a new step in the work that has been developed to transfer the needs of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands to the state level and to defend a coordinated response to migratory pressure." “Lanzarote needs its reality to be heard and for it to be understood that municipalities and islands cannot alone assume a situation that requires a much broader response. We will continue working hand in hand with the Arrecife City Council and the FEMP so that the needs of our island reach Madrid and concrete measures are adopted,” he remarked.
The vice-president of the FEMP's migration commission also announced that in the coming dates new meetings will be held in Madrid with different members of the Federation's Commission on Immigration and Social Inclusion, as well as with the president of the FEMP, with the aim of continuing to work and convey the demands of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands as a whole.
“This meeting in Arrecife is a starting point for further progress. In the coming weeks, we will continue working in Madrid with the Commission on Immigration and Social Inclusion and with the Presidency of the FEMP to keep this issue on the agenda and continue seeking solutions and commitments,” added Jacobo Medina.
The meeting thus reaffirms the will of the Arrecife City Council, the Cabildo of Lanzarote, and the FEMP to maintain a joint working channel, with the aim of defending the interests of the municipalities and demanding an institutional response in line with the dimension of the migratory situation facing Lanzarote and the Canary Islands.
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