The situation of irregular immigration to the Canary Islands is unsustainable. We all agree on this diagnosis in the archipelago, but not now, in view of the flows of boats and people that we are witnessing this season, but a long time ago, unfortunately. What we disagree with some is the deep meaning of the problem and how to deal with it, because we reject racism and xenophobia. But, there is no doubt that the European Union must urgently implement a common border and immigrant reception policy, presided over by respect for human rights.
Immigration is not going to stop, because you cannot put borders on hunger, misery, wars and the legitimate desires for improvement of the dispossessed of the world. People will continue to jump fences, cross seas in fragile boats and risk their lives to migrate as long as humanity is not capable of understanding that we inhabit the same planet that must feed us all and in which to expect a dignified life. But, in the meantime, we have to be able to address the problem with the involvement, in this order, of the European Union and the Spanish State, so that the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the island councils stop carrying a problem that is not theirs and for which they lack adequate resources.
When we are overwhelmed, inevitably, fear of contagion by coronavirus spreads easily among the population, but this is an unfounded fear as the data shows. More than 600 signatures already support the 'Citizen Manifesto of Lanzarote for the Dignified Treatment of Migrants', who point out that the alleged risk of contagion of covid-19 by people arriving in boats has more to do with xenophobia than with the specific health situation, mainly because, in addition to a preventive quarantine, they are systematically tested.
In Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, every year and throughout the year, but especially around this time of bonanza in the eastern Atlantic, we are forced to help a large number of people without having the necessary infrastructure or material and human resources to do so. They are not on an all-inclusive basis, as someone has maliciously insinuated, but are mostly interned and quarantined, outdoors, under tents or in small facilities or that do not meet the conditions, which - I have to admit - contradicts our commitment to the migratory phenomenon of combining respect for human rights, cooperation with countries of origin and transit, control of irregular immigration and integration policies.
The resolution of problems inevitably involves recognizing their existence, their causes and their dimension. And in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, we have a problem with illegal immigration, but it is closely related to human rights and is not being adequately addressed. In the Islands we need means and resources and a policy based on realism, solidarity and disconnected from the partisan agenda that orders migration policies in accordance with the principles of the Rule of Law and, at the same time, guarantees respect for the dignity of all people who arrive and the recognition of their fundamental rights.
From the European Union we demand good neighborliness, cooperation and co-development policies with the countries of origin of migratory flows and those of transit. And soon, because there is a risk that this perfect storm formed by the health emergency and the subsequent economic and social crisis will end up generating waves so huge that they are impossible to navigate.
Fco. Manuel Fajardo Palarea, PSOE senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
