The Canary Islands, the southern border of Europe and the main gateway for irregular immigration to Spain from Africa, are preparing to face a massive exodus of migrants in the coming weeks and months with rather limited resources. So far this year, almost 19,000 people have arrived in the archipelago, more than in the entire year 2022 (there were 15,682), and the worst seems to be yet to come.
The migratory surge on the Canary Islands route, the deadliest of all, began at the end of June, but it was this week when the highest peak was recorded: almost 4,000 people arrived in seven days, an absolute record.
The arrivals exceed the reception capacity of the islands. On Monday, with 400 people in 24 hours, it was Lanzarote that had to improvise tents with beds and temporary bathrooms in the port to serve all the people. On Tuesday and Wednesday it was El Hierro, with only 11,000 inhabitants, which received almost 1,300 people. The island was overwhelmed. There is no fixed infrastructure installed on its dock for first aid, which forced the installation of dozens of tents. To alleviate the situation, referrals have been made to other islands in 24-48 hours, leaving the centers free for new arrivals. Precisely these referrals caused a collapse in Tenerife on Friday, when the arrival of 1,231 people to the islands forced 200 immigrants to have to sleep on the floor of the Los Cristianos dock as there were no free places in the first care centers.
The Cabildo of El Hierro, an island where six out of every ten migrants have arrived this week, approved a declaration on Thursday demanding help and more means to care for immigrants. “The central government must address the construction of accommodation infrastructure through emergency means,” says the declaration, which insists on maintaining the pace of referrals on an island “that is not prepared in terms of surface area, population or means to manage the situation".
It is the Senegalese citizens fleeing the political and social instability in their country who are leading the migratory surge in the Canary Islands despite the danger of a trip that lasts more than ten days and that, on many occasions, has a dramatic end. “It's that or nothing. They tell you when they arrive,” says Manuel Capa, one of the members of the Polimnia sea guard, based in Lanzarote and who has been assisting in the rescue of immigrants for more than 12 years.
Maritime Rescue workers have also been demanding a reinforcement of staff for months to face the migratory surge. “There are weeks when the days go by from rescue to rescue and we can't cope,” says Capa, who remembers that they need to be one hundred percent to save lives. From Salvamento Marítimo, its director, José Luis García Lena, affirms that, despite the migratory surge, the resources are sufficient. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, expressed himself yesterday in the same sense, although the reality that exists on the islands is very different. Furthermore, the phenomenon is increasing.
Thousands of people are waiting on the African coasts to embark on the journey. The weather and the good state of the sea, which in these months is a dish, will encourage the outings. It is expected that more than 10,000 people could arrive in the next three months. The year could close in the Canary Islands with more than 25,000 arrivals, above 2020 – 23,023 arrived – when there was a collapse in the archipelago due to Covid. The annual record was reached in 2006, when 31,678 immigrants arrived, with the cayucos crisis.
In 2020, there was a critical situation, since there were no transfers to the Peninsula – air transport was practically paralyzed – and aberrant situations occurred, such as the overcrowding of more than 2,000 people in the port of Arguineguín (Gran Canaria), in what was called the pier of shame. So the immigrants, as a solution, were placed in tourist complexes that were empty due to the absence of tourists as a result of the pandemic. Once normality returned, they were transferred to the Peninsula.
Today the situation has nothing to do with it, as pointed out by the regional immigration coordinator of the Red Cross in the Canary Islands, José Antonio Rodríguez, although the intensity of the arrivals this week has pushed the reception centers to their limits, as happened on Friday with 200 people. sleeping rough on the dock. On the islands there are now about 3,500 immigrants of the almost 19,000 who have arrived in reception centers. The rest has been transferred to different parts of the Peninsula with quick referrals. They only stay on the islands for an average of 30 days and then travel to the Peninsula on regular plane and boat lines.
The commitment of the Minister of Migration, José Luis Escrivá, is that around 3,500-4,000 reception places will be maintained in the archipelago in nine centers, some exclusively for women and others for victims of trafficking, while rapid referrals continue. The goal is that there are always free places on the islands for new arrivals. When peaks occur, like this week's, tents are set up and equipped with the basics. This is one of the main complaints that NGOs have, which advocate establishing well-equipped infrastructure in the face of a phenomenon that is entering a “critical cycle.”
This is stated by migration expert Txema Santana, who points out that the weather situation and instability in various African countries are going to intensify migratory movements in the short term. “Improvising places when there is a rebound makes attention precarious. We live in a humanitarian emergency with more than 6,000 deaths that often overwhelms reception resources,” he says.
The director of the immigration secretariat of the diocese of the Canary Islands, David Melián, expresses the same sense, stating that they consider that the authorized centers do not meet the conditions. “They call it fixed infrastructure, but they are huts with removable stretchers where many people sleep in a row and that are sensitive to changes in temperature. In winter it is very cold and in summer, very hot,” says Melián.
In his opinion, and the coordinator of Cear in the Canary Islands, Juan Carlos Lorenzo, agrees, rapid referrals are alleviating the situation in the Canary Islands, but they harm migrants. “Not all guarantees in care are met,” says Lorenzo. Both also point out that once they arrive on the Peninsula, they are only in reception centers for one more month, since the state instruction changed in August. After 30 days they take to the streets in an irregular situation, without speaking Spanish and without support. “They are left homeless and without any support,” says Melián.
Adding to the problem of the intensity of arrivals in the Canary Islands is the large number of unaccompanied minors, whose guardianship has to be assumed by the regional government. The Government of the Canary Islands has more than 3,000 minors under guardianship with an extra cost of 14 million euros. The Minister of Social Welfare, Candelaria Delgado, has asked the Government to force the rest of the autonomous communities by law to take on part of these unaccompanied minors. So far this year, only 370 minors have been distributed to the rest of the State. It currently has more than 50 devices enabled. However, as Delgado explains, it is not only about giving them a place to live but you have to educate them, care for them and help their social integration.
“I don't want even one child of legal age to leave a center without their papers, it is a personal commitment,” says Delgado, who affirms that the Government's challenge is to ensure that they have a future in this country. “But for this we need help. "We cannot handle 3,000 minors," says the counselor, who trusts that at the Sectoral Conference on Childhood and Family, which will be held in the coming days, solutions will be given by the State and there will be "co-responsibility" for the rest of the autonomous communities. .
