The Ministry of Inclusion, Migration and Social Security has opened – as an emergency – 3,000 new places in the reception system to address the migration crisis that is plaguing the Canary Islands. In addition, the department headed by José Luis Escrivá, according to ministerial sources, is working on "several contingency plans" to reinforce the network that involves searching for locations such as hotels, hostels and military barracks on the peninsula in which to host the people who are arriving on the Canary coasts.
The Government's plan is clear: decongest the reception system in the archipelago, which has seen more than 23,000 people arrive so far this year. Most of them, young Senagalese who arrive to El Hierro in canoes. Adults and accompanied children are integrated into the national system, while unaccompanied minors are the responsibility of the autonomous communities.
To face the crisis, the Government has opened 3,000 new places in the reception system spread throughout all the autonomous communities. Most of them located in hotels and hostels, require the same sources. Migration experts warn that the trickle of arrivals will not stop during October and November, months in which the sea along the Canary Islands route is like a plate; perfect for navigation.
In this way, the Ministry of Defense has transferred two military barracks to the Migration Ministry to set up camps to accommodate immigrants. One of them in the General Arteaga barracks of the Army, located in the Madrid neighborhood of Carabanchel and in Alcalá de Henares, also in Madrid.
This Wednesday, Minister Escrivá described as "absolute falsehood" and "intolerable insult" to NGOs the statements of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in which she criticized the central government's lack of information on the " more than possible" arrival of migrants to the Peninsula, from the Canary Islands.
"For a change we have not been informed of anything at all. At least until now, no one from the Government has contacted us to date," the 'popular' leader said on Monday, adding that the migrants "are not "You can treat them like bundles that are sent and left around the Peninsula." "The Government is not responsible for anything. It does not tell the autonomous communities how many people there are or how we are going to care for them," she said.
In recent days, different regional executives and city councils governed by the Popular Party (PP) have complained about the policy carried out by the Government of Pedro Sánchez in the transfer of migrants from the Canary Islands, demanding greater coordination and information from regional administrations and local.
One of the first to come out publicly to criticize this Government policy was precisely Díaz Ayuso. Furthermore, from 'Génova', his spokesperson, Borja Sémper, has demanded that Sánchez's Executive inform the autonomous communities, while demanding that they not be treated as "packages."
Precisely, the Ministry of the Interior has transferred 321 migrants to Almería this Tuesday, who have been rescued in recent days in Atlantic waters when they were trying to arrive in the Canary Islands by cayuco.
As a result of this, the mayor of Almería, the 'popular' María del Mar Vázquez, has expressed her "understanding" of the "current situation" that the Canary Islands are experiencing, but has reproached the Government for its "institutional disloyalty" for "not "have counted" on the city council for the transfer to the capital of Almeria of these more than 320 people.
For his part, the spokesperson for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, has criticized the "very poor migration planning" that, in his opinion, the central Executive has been deploying, acting in a "unilateral" manner and "without cooperation" with the autonomous communities.
Likewise, the city of Cáceres welcomes 40 migrants from the Canary Islands who arrived in the city last Friday and who are being cared for by the social services of the city council and by the NGO Accem, in charge of coordinating care for migrants who arrive in the city.
Given this, the Government of Extremadura has asked the Government of Spain for "coordination" and has criticized that it knew one day in advance that 180 new migrants would arrive in the region this Tuesday.
On Monday, 195 migrants also arrived in the province of Huesca, according to figures from the Government of Aragon, which complained of "institutional disloyalty" by the Executive, something that the Government delegate in the region, Fernando Beltrán, denied.
Beltrán, who does not rule out more transfers to the region, stated that the migratory flow towards the Canary archipelago is "out of the ordinary" so a system has been put in place to relocate all these people to the peninsula.
