The mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, spoke this Tuesday after the announcement of the closure of the La Santa shelter as a temporary reception center for migrant minors in the municipality. This space, which usually housed more than a hundred children and adolescents arriving in boats to the island, has been the subject of criticism since its opening six years ago.
The mayor of Tinajo has reiterated to the people of La Santa: "The shelter for immigrant minors is now closed. The residents of La Santa can now sleep peacefully."
In addition, its management until last summer by the Acción Social Siglo XXI Foundation is being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for alleged embezzlement of public funds.
Machín, who had given an ultimatum to the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands to close the space, has made public "his enormous satisfaction" after the closure. “After the struggle of the last few weeks and the sad events that we have experienced, I still find it hard to believe, and these facilities in recent times did not meet the minimum conditions for a human being,” he said at the doors of the center.
“First I want to thank the people of Tinajo and, especially, La Santa, for their knowing how to be, for extending a hand and always opening the door. I am proud of all of them,” he added.
“I am satisfied with the closure because we have been suffering this since the end of 2018, when I was asked for its temporary use for only a few months and so on until today. In 2019, with the change of government, I was promised that it would be removed as soon as possible, promises that were not fulfilled during four years of the previous government. And the worst thing has been the clashes between the migrant minors and the residents of the town. Today I have to congratulate and thank the politicians of their word. First, thank Fernando Clavijo for his electoral commitment, Oswaldo Betancort, the Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Families of the Canary Islands Government, Candelaria Delgado, her Deputy Minister, Francisco Candil and, especially, the friend Marci Acuña, Island Councilor for Social Welfare.”
In this shelter “I have collaborated a lot, I have helped a lot, but I have to say that what has not been done in four years of false promises has now been done in just over nine months, it is to be appreciated because I no longer believed that anything was going to be done. Thank you all, really. President Oswaldo Betancort has already given the order to the Island Youth Councilor, Aroa Revelo, to leave the shelter as new and, if necessary, make some improvements, for example, to shade or accessibility areas.”
Machín has issued a statement in which he thanked "the bus drivers and the families who have suffered various incidents caused over the years by migrants", as well as agents of the Civil Guard, the National Police, the ICU of Arrecife, the Autonomous Police and the Local Police of Tinajo, "who are the ones who have done the most work for years but, above all, I want to thank Tinajo and La Santa."
In this line, Jesús Machín has added that "This is the largest shelter in the Canary Islands and it has to be for Youth, for Culture, for Sports and for whatever is needed. And also for the children of Tinajo, I hope that next summer we can celebrate the Loco Verano camp in the shelter as we did six years ago. Just say thank you and thank you for trusting me. If at any time I have said a word that was raised in tone, it is because I couldn't take it anymore. Today is a very happy day in Tinajo,” he concluded.
