The vice president shows his concern about the uptick in the arrival of cayucos to the Canary Islands and regrets the opacity of Madrid to know “how many people carry out their professional work daily in the SIVE”
The vice president of the Canary Islands, Manuel Domínguez, has demanded that the State provide the Archipelago “with more human and technical means to fight against irregular immigration” after the rise in the arrival of cayucos that has generated figures exceeding a thousand people per month since last year. March.
Domínguez expressed his concern about the "human tragedy that involves thousands of people risking their lives every day to cross the sea from the African continent" and regretted the opacity of the state government in this matter "which prevents the Canary Islanders from knowing, among other things, matters, data such as how many professional personnel the Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE) has daily, in charge of detecting at long distance the vessels that approach our coastline.”
“Currently and with the technology that SIVE has and the obsolescence of the material it has – continued the vice president – barely 25 percent of the pateras, cayucos and inflatable boats that head to the Canary Islands are detected. This is due to the lack of technical and human resources that the Civil Guard has and the lack of a platform that can promote cooperation with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX).”
At this point, Manuel Domínguez is also committed to the State “increasing early detection systems through national and international cooperation with the police and non-governmental organizations of the countries of origin from where these vessels set sail, as well as the contribution of more people and more technical means to help alleviate the number of lives lost at sea. The SIVE, with the technology it now has, cannot detect most of the boats and cayucos due to the material with which they are made.”
Likewise, the Canary Islands vice president regretted that the President of the Government “comes to the Canary Islands to spend his summer holidays and lives with his back turned to the reality that we have in the Islands every summer in terms of irregular immigration. Spain must lead this role as it is the southern border of Europe and also reach an understanding with other sending countries in the French-speaking area, in addition to Morocco, to carry out social actions. Our country, unfortunately, does not have an Africa Plan that is effective and that serves to attract European funds with which to improve our capacity to respond to the migration challenge.”
According to the data available to the Government of the Canary Islands, in 2023 a total of 9.338 people have arrived on the coasts of the islands aboard boats such as pateras, cayucos or inflatable boats, with June, with 2.697 people, being the month in which recorded a higher rate of arrivals. So far in August alone, 829 people have already been counted, including minors and pregnant women.
