The central government has already begun to divert immigrants from Lanzarote to the Peninsula, as confirmed by the Minister of Social Welfare of the Cabildo.
"Slowly, it is true, but it is already starting. There was already a referral here two or three days ago," said Isabel Martín on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero.
In this regard, Martín recalled that it is the Red Cross that takes care of the attention to adult immigrants who arrive in pateras to the island through an agreement with the State, noting that the NGO currently only has "two accommodations, one in a hotel establishment and another in a warehouse" for this purpose.
"I think the minister has realized, because the coincidence that the day he arrived we had that tremendous flood", added the Minister of Social Welfare, although the Minister of Migration, Jose Luis Escrivá, did not include Lanzarote in his visit to the Canary Islands.
In this regard, it should be recalled that, coinciding with Escrivá's visit to the archipelago, the island received the arrival of five boats between Thursday night and Friday, from which a total of 97 immigrants were located. In addition, in the days that the minister has been in the Canary Islands, more than 1,000 immigrants have arrived in pateras to different parts of the archipelago. "And an image is worth a thousand words," said Isabel Martín.
Saturation in the centers for minors
Regarding the situation of unaccompanied minors, the Minister of Social Welfare of the Cabildo stated that the arrival of the five boats last week also meant "madness", since about twenty minors came in them.
"That saturates the resources we have," said Isabel Martín, who assured that in the face of this the Cabildo is "starting to take steps" with the Government of the Canary Islands "to make a redistribution." "Because those kids need to be taken care of," she added.
Many of them are given PCR on the fly and I think there is some positive but it is already in the process of isolation. Is the situation under control? Yes? Hard? also, because there comes a time when we need a little help, not only in the case of adults, but also of minors," Martín continued.
In this sense, the Minister of Social Welfare has once again pointed to the "tremendous" lack of infrastructure on the island. "Everyone knows that we are using buildings that do not meet the conditions," said Isabel Martín, referring to the La Santa shelter.
"In addition, we cannot forget that we have the issue of Covid, which has further aggravated the situation, because if we had full establishments, now we have to have more due to the casuistry of some positive that has to be isolated," she added.
"More resources" for the care of minors
Thus, the Minister stated that she plans to contact the General Directorate of Minors of the Government of the Canary Islands to "start working on the line of how to solve." "It is not about them taking them away and we get rid of the problem," Isabel Martín clarified, pointing out that what it is about is being able to have "more resources."
"A large part of these children are in the institute and we cannot even work well with them in the sense that they access a normalized integration within what is the society of the island and integrate like other children. Let us remember that many of them have a whole future ahead of them that they also want to take with enthusiasm. That is the perspective that I give them and it makes me very sad, we as an administration, not being able to face that problem, welcome those children and work with them. I am talking about social work, profiles of psychologists, pedagogues, which also in the Cabildo there is an important staff," she concluded.