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The Government of the Canary Islands stood before the Executive of Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday regarding the management of the quarantines of immigrants arriving by boat. In this way, the archipelago joins the requests of other autonomous regions, such as Murcia or Andalusia, which have been demanding for several weeks that the central government take action on a matter in which the communities are lacking in resources.

The Canarian case, however, is different for several reasons. The first, because it is a community of the same political tint as the Government and that, in addition, this Wednesday had a bilateral meeting with the Executive to address this problem.

The autonomous president, Ángel Víctor Torres , after meeting with the ministers of Inclusion and Territorial Policy, José Luis Escrivá and Carolina Darias, announced at a press conference his discrepancy with the protocol for the reception of pateras, which leaves all the weight in the hands of the autonomous communities. "We understand that there are aspects that must be improved and with which we do not agree in the Canary Islands," he stressed. He was referring to who should take charge of the quarantines of immigrants. The Government stipulates that they must be the autonomies.

He claimed “co-management” to enable Defense spaces or floors of the Asset Management Society from the Bank Restructuring (Sareb) to quarantine those immigrants who are in better conditions and do not require hospital care.

At the moment, and as reported by the delegate of the Government in the islands, Anselmo Pestana , there is no evidence that any outbreak of coronavirus in the Canary Islands comes from a person arriving in a boat.

Another crisis of the canoes?

The situation in the Canary Islands is also unique because for decades it has been a customary territory prepared for the arrival of boats. However, the migratory phenomenon this year has surprised everyone on the island: while nationally the arrival of immigrants by sea has decreased by 34% due to the pandemic, in the archipelago the interception of boats has quadrupled. Since January 1, there are 3,269 immigrants in 108 boats registered by the Ministry of the Interior.

"It is not the 2006 crisis, but we are on the way," sources from the Civil Guard present on the Canary Islands admit to EL MUNDO. That year, 31,678 people landed in the archipelago in the so-called "crisis of the canoes." The armed institute also warns that from mid-September, when the maritime conditions are optimal, the flow of boats could be "daily".

Most of these vessels arrived in recent weeks, following the lifting of the state of alarm. Although there is no exact explanation for this change in the paradigm of the migratory flow to the Canary Islands, Mauritania is identified by the Civil Guard as the main origin of the ships. The closing of borders with countries like Morocco and the hope of having a better treatment against coronavirus are factors that can also influence this growing phenomenon.

"They don't know where to put them"

Although the troops, according to the same sources, are equipped for the reception and treatment of immigrants with symptoms of Covid-19, it is the lack of spaces where they can receive them as a quarantine, the real problem that today worries the authorities. : "They don't know where to put them."

On the other hand, the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) has taken advantage of this situation to give voice to a claim considered already "historic" among the forces and security forces of the State in the Canary Islands: an expansion of the Maritime Service on the islands and a increase in staff depending not on the Canarian population, but on the real influx of visitors that the archipelago has.

Minister Escrivá promised to visit the Canary Islands in September to learn first-hand about the situation on the southern border of Europe. By then, and according to the authorities, the number of weekly boats will be higher than the current one.

Without showers and on the floor: Quarantine in a ship

This Wednesday it was learned that 71 illegal immigrants recently arrived in the Canary Islands had to spend several days in an industrial warehouse on the Arguineguín dock , in Gran Canaria, as a quarantine. As reported by the Spanish Commission for Aid to Refugees and Doctors of the World, in this ship there are no showers or mattresses, so the rescued people had to sleep on the ground. Both organizations indicated that this procedure has been common for months and demanded an improvement in conditions that allows adequate care, since several of them had to be transferred to health centers.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Canary Islands
  • Andalusia
  • Murcia
  • Civil Guard
  • Morocco
  • Coronavirus
  • immigration
  • Covid 19

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