The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, on his behalf and on behalf of the entire Island Corporation, regrets the new increase in boats, and demands support from the Government of Spain to welcome immigrants.
"We are dismayed at the high number of people who have had to be rescued, which according to the latest official data, increases to eight boats carrying more than 380 people, with deaths still to be confirmed," says the president.
Betancort believes that Lanzarote "is alone in the management of the migratory flow and in the reception policies by the central Government", for which he requests "urgent measures" from the Ministry of the Interior, which has the powers in immigration.
This situation has caused the Temporary Foreigners Attention Center (CATE) to reach its maximum capacity, so the Security and Emergency Consortium, overwhelmed, has made the decision to install a provisional device, with tents and portable bathrooms, to assist the rescued people.
"This is a one-off event and will be in the port of Los Mármoles, where Maritime Rescue usually docks, to try to assist these people in the most dignified way possible," says the president of the Emergency Consortium, Francisco Aparicio.
"We need more resources in immigration matters"
The president of the Cabildo regrets that this situation is not an isolated event, but another example of the systematic abandonment suffered by the island of Lanzarote in immigration matters.
"We have been without a SIVE for years, despite the fact that it was announced more than a year ago that the Haría City Council ceded the space, which would improve the detection of boats and, consequently, save lives," adds the president.
For all these reasons, Betancort demands that the Government of Spain include the Canary route "in the European migration plan", a fact that would allow us to face this increase in migratory flow in a more effective way.
"We need a dignified and differentiated treatment, and that translates into increasing the economic items and services to face irregular immigration, and not reducing the equipment, as was done by allocating a Maritime Rescue boat, necessary in Lanzarote, to the Balearic Islands," concludes the president.
