The Government sends foreign minors 'camouflaged' as adults to communities from the Canary Islands

Chema Rodríguez Sevilla

Seville

Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-02:08

• From the Canary Islands, the Government distributes thousands of immigrants throughout the peninsula with notices "out of courtesy" to the municipalities

At the end of October last year, the central government organized

massive transfers of migrants

- mainly Senegalese - from the Canary Islands to the Iberian Peninsula.

The objective was to alleviate the saturation of the islands in one of their worst crises of arrivals of canoes from the African coasts and the idea, and this was done and continues to be done, was to distribute them throughout all the autonomous communities.

But among the thousands of foreigners transferred, he also sent

hundreds of minors,

camouflaged as adults.

Nearly 200 foreign minors

(menas) have arrived in the Andalusian autonomous community alone in recent months

in convoys organized by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration to the eight provinces, although the figure could approach 300 as that tests continue to be carried out to verify their age.

The result is that all these minors have had to be welcomed by the Andalusian Government with its own resources and the system runs the risk of collapsing.

The problem is not only Andalusian.

In fact, as EL MUNDO has learned, in many other communities (Murcia, Extremadura or Valencia, to give some examples) this situation is repeated, although Juanma Moreno's executive has taken a stand and decided to take action.

The first thing has been the sending of

a letter

by the Minister of Social Inclusion, Youth, Families and Equality, Loles López, to the Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, in which she demands the financing that would have arrived if The minors would have been transferred as such and not as adults.

For now, there are 187 confirmed cases and those who have had to be housed in the different centers for menas that Andalusia has, but there are another 97 cases of migrants who are

suspected

of being under 18 years of age and who, in that case, would have to also pass into the care of the Board.

There would then be 284 minors transferred from the Canary Islands by the central government to the Andalusian community who, officially, were of legal age.

The difference is, as explained by the general director of Children, Adolescence and Youth of the Board, Paco Mora, in that minors cannot be distributed

without prior agreement and without

additional financing to the autonomies.

In principle, they must stay in the place where they arrived, the Canary Islands, and their distribution throughout the country must be done under the protection of a Response Plan such as the one agreed upon due to the ore crisis that the city of Ceuta experienced on last year.

The letter, to which this newspaper has had access, is dated February 16 and in it the Andalusian counselor also requests a

bilateral meeting

between the two administrations and reproaches the executive chaired by Pedro Sánchez for having turned a deaf ear to the warnings that Andalusia and other communities have been making in recent months in photos such as the Sectoral Conference of the sector.

Initially, according to the senior official of the Board, the central government's response was to deny it and then minimize the problem by claiming that they were

specific cases

.

The Andalusian counselor demands that the Government not only admit the problem, but also take action on the matter and assume responsibilities with the declaration of a

migration contingency

and the activation, retroactively, of the Response Plan with the consequent financing.

The Board criticizes not only the substance, but also the ways of the central executive, which has acted in the face of this migratory crisis, they say from Andalusia, "with a

lack of transparency

, a lot of improvisation and, above all, with arrogance."

In fact, Mora clarifies, it was not until very recently that the central government began to inform in advance of the arrival of migrants from the Canary Islands, although this information is limited to anticipating the number of people and the place they are going to.

Without further details.

The magnitude of the problem is given by the fact that, since the end of October and according to the calculations of the regional government, a total of

6,195 migrants

have arrived in Andalusia from the archipelago through the ports of Huelva and Cádiz or the Madrid airport. and, later, by bus to Almería, Seville and Huelva.

If confirmed, the nearly 300 minors would represent almost 5% of all those who have been transferred to Andalusia.

Mora explains, it has been the NGOs that work with these groups that have warned of the presence of ores in foreign remittances.

Or the Police when an identification has been made.

Then the Juvenile Prosecutor's Offices enter the scene, which are the ones that have to process the procedures to officially declare them minors after performing the corresponding

dental or bone tests

.

The avalanche of cases is being of such magnitude, says the general director of Andalusian Children, that even the prosecutor's offices are

"overwhelmed"

and that is why it is taking so long to confirm whether or not the 97 pending cases are over 18 years of age.

But their identification and shelter does not end the task that the autonomous Administration must assume, since the vast majority of minors are around 17 years of age and upon reaching the age of majority, resources must also be allocated to these

formerly supervised young people

, such as housing for a time.

And everything, they point out from the Board, "by lungs."

Given any

new distribution

- which is in the air - of minors, Andalusia asks that the 187 - or those that have been confirmed - that it already has cared for be taken into account, while insisting that the Government must sit down with the communities autonomous "to collaborate with loyalty".

The Ministry of Youth responded that their commitment is to reinforce

new joint response plans

with the autonomous communities, which includes the possibility of declaring the migration contingency "when the circumstances arise."

Likewise, the sources consulted stressed that one of the commitments is

to increase the resources

allocated to unaccompanied foreign minors, both in the general budgets and with European funds.