Warsan Shire in her writing HOME tells us: “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark (…)” “You only leave home when home won't let you stay (...)”
Migration processes occur mainly due to the unequal growth of territories, both from a demographic, economic, social and political point of view, as well as due to certain armed conflicts or even due to climate change.
We cannot forget that the Canary Islands is an archipelago made up of eight islands, five islets, eight roques and the sea; a limited territory where in 2020, in the midst of a health and economic crisis for our land and the entire world, the flows of migrants arriving on our coasts in boats and canoes exceeded 23,000 people.
To add more data that helps us assess the current real situation, according to ABC data, from January 1 to August 29, 2021, 9,255 people have arrived on our coasts, that is, 5,330 more than in the same period of 2020, or what is the same, 135% more.
Lanzarote and La Graciosa, all of the Canary Islands, are suffering an unprecedented migratory crisis, which the State Government has turned its back on, refusing to activate solidarity. Its only objective has been to put obstacles in the way so that these people could not leave the islands, turning our territory into a prison for them.
To the State Government's neglect of the migratory problem in the Canary Islands, we must add the agreement of the Government of the Canary Islands with it, a government also headed by the Socialist Party (PSOE), a submission that has left us images to forget, inhuman images such as those of the Arguineguín pier, the improvised camps in El Sebadal and Las Raíces or the most tragic side of immigration that our neighbors in Órzola have had to experience on more than one occasion.
But unfortunately history repeats itself, it is no longer just the Government of the Canary Islands that does not raise its voice, neither does the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, which is led by the Socialist Party (PSOE) and is supported by the Popular Party (PP). Today Lanzarote is experiencing those images of docks full of migrants in the sun, unhealthy warehouses where they are housed, a health system that is collapsing due to the massive arrival of boats and canoes on the same day. And our rulers looking the other way...
I speak as spokesperson for the Nationalist Group in the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa but, above all, as Samuel Martín, one more citizen of these blessed islands.
From the solidarity that we all know characterizes the Canarian people, I ask our rulers in Lanzarote and La Graciosa, and in the Canary Islands, not to continue looking to Madrid.
They are neither here nor are they expected, we know that they are all of the same political color, but they are here to defend their land and their people. And they must also protect and help those who arrive on our coasts, they cannot wait with their arms crossed for the most tragic side of migration to be repeated once again, where hundreds of people have lost their lives.
Lanzarote and La Graciosa, the Canary Islands, cannot continue to assume a problem of the Spanish State, immigration is not going to stop, borders cannot be placed on the unequal growth between territories, but we can raise our voice to be able to address the problem with the greatest involvement of all those responsible.
