The human tragedy experienced on the coasts of our island shakes us and crushes our souls for the deceased. The human drama that the Canary Islands is experiencing, day after day, with the Atlantic/African migratory route is not something that catches us by surprise.
The current context of Covid and the economic crisis reaches every corner of the planet; the difference that marks some continents or others is how they face it. For this reason, if the European continent has been overwhelmed with its eminent institutional and economic structure, if this happened to Europe, it was evident that the continents and countries with a low level of development, the pandemic was going to hit them like a bulldozer. So it was undeniable that the African/Atlantic route would intensify and the Canary Islands, due to its proximity to the African continent, would be in the eye of the hurricane.
For several months now I have been warning that we were going to be immersed in a serious migratory crisis, and I found that in some plenary session of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, the president, Mª Dolores Corujo, stated that we were not facing such a situation.
Time has proven me right with devastating data: 16,760 people have arrived in our Archipelago and, what is worse, we have witnessed and continue to witness a true and shameful political scandal, with the lack of coordination between institutions when it comes to dealing with the transfer of immigrants.
The images are shattering. Seeing immigrants wandering around the Plaza de la Feria and the incredulous gaze of Canarian society only demonstrates that it is not a simple lack of understanding between institutions. It goes much further; it has become evident that the real problem is that they have not known how to face the magnitude of the circumstances, that they do not know how to act. And this is the worst situation we could find ourselves in.
The parade of ministerial authorities through the Canary Islands has only made Canarian society even more outraged by the lack of empathy from the State Government, governed by PSOE-Podemos.
The questions are basic and the roadmap is clear: transfer of immigrants to other parts of the territory, operation of the SIVE, increase the presence of FRONTEX, activate the diplomatic channel of Spain and the European Union and promote development plans in the countries that send migration.
The State Government has looked the other way, abandoning the Canary Islands, and while everything is happening, the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Lanzarote are like spectators, without defending this land, our land, without raising their voices and becoming accomplices in the inaction of the central Government.
To defend this Archipelago without being imprisoned by partisan issues, a courage is needed that the current context demands more than ever.
This land is being subjected to the purest ostracism and they are leading all of Canarian society to a dangerous limit of unprecedented social tension. Without the arrival of tourists there is no economy, without an economy there are no employment resources and without employment unemployment and hidden ERTEs skyrocket.
All this, together with the pandemic itself and the reactivation of the migratory route, turns the Canary Islands into a dangerous pressure cooker.