The president of the Canary Islands demands “greater and better coordination” of the State and the “effective solidarity” of the autonomous communities
Clavijo emphasizes before the king that Spain and the EU “must act in the Canary Islands before the islands are overwhelmed by the situation”
The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo Batlle, has conveyed today, Tuesday, September 20, to the King of Spain, Felipe VI, the “growing social concern” generated in the islands by what the head of the regional Executive considers “inaction of the Government of Spain” in the management of migratory flows that try to reach the archipelago. At the Zarzuela Palace, where he was received by the monarch, Clavijo stressed that the reality of immigration “is becoming more complicated every week” because “of the political and economic crisis situations in the African countries of origin of the migrants” The president noted, “the good sea conditions are now combined, which encourage more trips to the islands.”
In this scenario, Fernando Clavijo analyzed with King Felipe VI what the Canary Islands consider "a response that does not live up to what it means to manage migratory flows", which according to the president of the Canary Islands has a direct impact on older people. levels of arrivals of boats with migrants, an increase in the risk to the lives of people who enter the sea looking for the island coasts and, as Clavijo stressed, “the lack of an effective solidarity response” on the part of the Government of Spain, the autonomous communities and the countries of the European Union to “face this humanitarian drama as this crisis demands of us.” “It cannot be that the Spanish State and the governments of the majority of autonomous communities ignore and ignore what is happening in the Canary Islands and the needs to share the management of the migratory flows that arrive to the islands,” Clavijo added.
In audience with the king, the president of the Canary Islands placed special emphasis on the lack of an “effective, coordinated and organized” response from the Spanish public administrations to what he considers “one of the great challenges of these times.” “Because migration will continue to occur, we cannot put doors to the sea when thousands of people are fleeing war and poverty. And because more and more migrants are arriving on our coasts,” argued Fernando Clavijo regarding the recent data that confirms the “considerable increase” in irregular arrivals to the Canary Islands compared to the previous year. “So far this year,” said Clavijo, “some fifteen thousand migrants have arrived to the islands and, with the strong rebound in July, in just nine months we have reached the total number for 2022.”
In the political context of the management of migratory flows, the president of the Canary Islands valued the open communication with the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, but demanded “greater involvement, involvement at the highest level” of the Spanish and European authorities to face the challenges of emigration. “Emigration to the Canary Islands needs to be treated rigorously and with appropriate means by both Spain and the EU,” said Clavijo, “and it must be before the islands are overwhelmed by the situation.”
In this sense, Fernando Clavijo informed the king of the requests that he has made to the acting president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, so that they move to the archipelago and learn first-hand about the problem. in the Canary Islands and offer effective solutions to respond to the arrival of boats with migrants from Africa. “These are figures from the Ministry of the Interior: in the first half of September, 2.920 migrants arrived, more than triple the number in the same period last year,” said Clavijo, “and to this figure are added at least another 368 people rescued from the sea.”
Invitation to King Felipe VI in the Canary Islands
President Clavijo also took advantage of his audience with the king at the Zarzuela Palace to send Felipe VI invitations to visit the island of La Palma for an act of recognition for people affected by the eruption of the volcano in September 2019. and also an event planned in Tenerife to recognize the work carried out by the men and women from all areas who participated in the tasks of extinguishing the Arafo-Candelaria fire. The president of the Canary Islands also informed the king of the holding, on November 8, of a new meeting of the Conference of Outermost Regions of the European Union that the Canary Islands plans to host.
