The Government wants a single interlocution with the NGOs involved in immigration

 The Government of the Canary Islands and the non-governmental organizations involved in migratory flows have agreed this Thursday to create "a single interlocution" that improves the care of migrants in the face of the possibility that in the coming months the arrival of people to the coasts of the Archipelago will increase.

The Canary Islands president, Fernando Clavijo, and the Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Families, Candelaria Delgado, have met with representatives of the NGOs, a meeting that they will also hold with other administrations involved.

"We need to address these issues directly and for this purpose a coordination table has been proposed where all public administrations are at different levels, third sector entities, the police, the civil guard, rescue...", said Delgado.

Faced with a possible rebound, the Canary Islands Government seeks to "be as well prepared as possible and be able to help all the people who arrive" and for the time being, the capacity for this is not yet strained.

One of the aspects that has helped to alleviate the system, according to the Minister, has been the opening of three new centers for minors, as well as the agreement of the Sectoral Conference on Childhood and Adolescence that referred minor migrants to centers in other autonomous communities last year 2022.

For his part, the representative of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR), Juan Carlos Lorenzo, pointed out that this meeting has been "a first contact" and insisted that "the migratory reality goes beyond the emergency" and that it is necessary to focus "not only on the people who arrive but on those who are there".

All the entities that have had a voice in the meeting are of a state nature, although unaccompanied children have been taken into account and there has been talk of the resources available to the Canary Islands and the municipalities to provide for the integration of minors.

In addition, Lorenzo stressed the need for the interlocution to be "fluid, coordinated, frequent and periodic" between all administrative spaces, regardless of whether or not they have direct competences in migration, due to the need to have an "integral" vision in this aspect.

Although the trend indicates that the flow has intensified and that there are islands such as Lanzarote or El Hierro that suffer more complications at an operational level, the CEAR representative considered that the Canary Islands has "a plan" with which it seeks to give "the best possible reception".

"Beyond a quantitative vision, now we want to study how to improve in a qualitative management of this migratory reality," he concluded.

Along with the CEAR coordinator in the Canary Islands, the territorial representative of ACCEM in the Canary Islands, Francisco Navarro Atiénzar, the director of the CEPAIM Foundation in the Canary Islands, Atabbe Mané Dieme, the head of UNHCR Spain-UNHCR Spain Canary Islands, Marco Nardo, the coordinator of the Cruz Blanca Foundation in the Canary Islands, Aisha Mohamed, the coordinator of CEAR Canarias, Juan Carlos Lorenzo, and Txema Zalarruqui of the Red Cross.EFE