The authorities of the Island are furious. It has not been well received that throughout Spain it is commented that in Lanzarote there has been a "cleaning of immigrants" due to the arrival of President Rodríguez Zapatero to the Island.
On the one hand, they argue that on the same day, July 27, the day on which the last two boats arrived in Lanzarote with 40 and 41 illegal immigrants - all of sub-Saharan origin - it was already announced that, as usual, the 81 immigrants would be transferred to the El Matorral center, in Fuerteventura, which, on the other hand, is the only foreign detention center in the entire archipelago.
This transfer was due, according to local institutions, to the fact that the number of immigrants in the transit room of the Guacimeta airport was not yet excessive but could become so, in case new boats with immigrants were received, since for about five days in these facilities about 96 undocumented immigrants ended up coinciding, the 15 who were already there plus the 81 newly arrived. Sources close to the Government Delegation in Las Palmas assured that the 15 immigrants who were already in Guacimenta are still there because they are already in the process of extradition, while the process of the other 81 will be somewhat slower.
After the harsh criticisms made yesterday by the Secretary of Organization of the Popular Party (PP), Larry Álvarez, criticizing the coincidence of the transfer of immigrants with the arrival of Zapatero to Lanzarote, the Sub-delegate of the Government in the Canary Islands, Carolina Darias, clarified that it was precisely to avoid certain overcrowding that the procedures for the transfer were initiated, after having provided the foreigners with first medical assistance and then proceeding with the police procedures for their identification.
The editors of lavozdelanzarote.com learned yesterday that the plane that chartered the undocumented immigrants left the Island last Tuesday at about 08:30 in the morning, just four hours before the landing of Zapatero and his family.
But the proximity between the departure of these and the arrival of the plane that transported the president and his family was due, as assured yesterday by various sources close to the Island Directorate of the General State Administration, only to the large amount of work that the troops of the Scientific Police had with the sudden arrival of both boats, since the identification procedures could not be completed until last Monday afternoon, with the plane leaving the following morning.
The departure time was also not a decision of the National Police Force in Lanzarote or any island institution, but depended on orders from Madrid and the Ministry of the Interior, in charge of these services.
Local authorities also highlighted the reduction in the arrival of boats during the last year, which amounts to about 33 percent less in terms of the number of boats, decreasing the reception of undocumented immigrants by sea by more than 50 percent in Lanzarote since the arrival of the PSOE to the central government.
They also recalled that the State plans to begin construction of the new immigrant detention center in Lanzarote within about 3 months, in the El Polvorín area, near the airport, a project that already has a budget item.
From the Island it is also argued that devices such as those of the Police Intervention Unit (UIP) were already operating on the Island several months before the arrival of the president, both in functions of crime prevention and in immigration controls that are carried out on a regular basis.
The Guacimeta transit room
The situation of this center at the airport is not worrying, as highlighted yesterday by sources close to the Island Directorate, who stressed that with repatriations, on the one hand, and diversions to other islands such as Fuerteventura, on the other, there are guarantees that there will be no overcrowding, even if the arrival of boats intensifies during the months of September and October, as planned every year.
Certain catering services are contracted from Fuerteventura, which are located in the airport transit room, and which supply immigrants with breakfasts or the relevant food. In this center there is also an almost continuous medical service, between an interim doctor and an external service doctor, clean bedding and the possibility of up to two showers a day. The Guacimeta Irregular Foreigners Reception Center has an approximate capacity to accommodate about 150 people, although it has enough beds to accommodate about 160 immigrants.
Extradition process
Sources close to the Arrecife CPN Police Station explained in detail the process and the treatment that these illegal immigrants receive after being detected on board a boat.
If they are arrested upon arrival, they are given a kind of "identification", because they do not usually carry any type of documents, and then they are sent to the police station. Once here, the expulsion proposal is made, which is sent to the duty courts. These give the order of release or internment. In the second case, the immigrants are taken to the airport detention center, where they can stay for a maximum of 40 days. The court then sends the expulsion proposal and the order to the Provincial Delegation of Las Palmas, so that it can facilitate the expulsion decree.
It is then that the planes contracted between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are prepared to deport them to their countries of origin. The transfers to hospitals or reception centers or minors, as well as the custody, are also carried out by the National Police. In the case of minors, if the age is not sufficiently clear, the immigrant is given radiological tests, and depending on the results, their destination will be a minor's center or the airport detention center.
