Clavijo demands that the community Civil Protection Mechanism be activated

 

The Government and the majority of the parliamentary groups sign the

Canarian Pact for Migration

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and the representatives of the majority of the parliamentary groups signed the Canary Islands Pact for Migration this Thursday. The document, from which only Vox has distanced itself, includes a battery of demands to the State and the EU so that they “carry out their powers in a more agile and effective way in the management of the migration crisis” that the archipelago is experiencing.

 

 Manuel Domínguez indicates that Madrid should also be asked to make the “necessary regulatory modifications” so that the powers of unaccompanied foreign minors “are not exclusive to the communities to which they arrive.”

 

As for the EU, the signed document includes a package of requests, among which "a greater deployment of Frontex in the Canary Islands" and the implementation of effective measures to fight mafias and improve living conditions in the countries stand out. of origin and transit of migrants. The Government and the majority of parliamentary groups also request the European Commission to enable extraordinary funds and resources to “address the humanitarian drama that the Canary Islands are experiencing.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has highlighted the commitment of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration to prepare and approve a collaboration agreement between the state and Canary Islands governments that consolidates an expenditure of 50 million euros to expedite care of unaccompanied migrant minors. During a visit to the island of El Hierro, the Minister of Migration, José Luis Escrivá, was able to learn on the ground the reality that exists on this island after several months of continuous arrivals of boats with migrants on board. In this area, Clavijo also stressed to the minister the importance of the Government of Spain requesting the European Union (EU) to immediately activate the Community Civil Protection Mechanism to respond with better means to the migratory phenomenon that originates in Africa. western.

 

The activation of the community Civil Protection Mechanism would improve public actions and resources in the face of the growing arrival of migrants to the archipelago, which would make possible rapid responses to emergency situations such as the one the islands are experiencing with the arrivals of cayucos. This measure, which has already been requested by letter to the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, is aimed at “being able to count on effective help that contributes to alleviating the difficult situation that the Canary Islands are going through in recent months in the field of migratory crisis,” indicates Fernando Clavijo in his letter to the head of the Government of Spain.

 

The written communication from the president of the Canary Islands comes after Fernando Clavijo has conveyed this need to activate “in the shortest period of time possible” the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to the ministers of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and of Migrations, José Luis Escrivá, on recent visits to the islands. “The emergency that we are currently experiencing, with the massive arrival of thousands of migrants to our coasts, is extremely serious and represents a major challenge for an already tense territory like ours,” explains Clavijo in his letter to Sánchez, because “as I have had the opportunity to travel to you on repeated occasions, the Canary Islands, as the southern border of Europe, cannot alone assume the entire weight of migration management [when] we have already reached record numbers of migrant arrivals, surpassing data from the “cayuco crisis of 2006”.

 

The activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism must be requested by the Government of the Member State that is affected by an emergency situation such as the one that the central Executive has already assumed occurs in the Canary Islands. To do this, the Government of Spain must address the Emergency Response Coordination Center, a measure to which Fernando Clavijo requests that the Government of Spain give “highest priority” to “be able to count on effective help that contributes to alleviating the "difficult situation that the Canary Islands are going through in recent months in the area of ​​the migration crisis." In this area, the EU instrument planned as the Civil Protection Mechanism would provide greater means of aid and also rapid response in emergency situations with the community dispatch of specialized material, search and rescue teams and the transfer of more health personnel.

 

Agreement for the referral of minors

 

The president of the Canary Islands personally conveyed the need to activate the European Civil Protection Mechanism to the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, during a visit to the island of El Hierro to learn about the scene of the highest number of arrivals of boats with migrants originating from West African countries. In this meeting, in which representatives of the Island Council of El Hierro and the three town councils of the island also participated, the head of the Government of the Canary Islands and Minister Escrivá agreed on the preparation and signing of a collaboration agreement between both administrations to allocate economic resources worth 50 million euros for the care of minor migrants.

 

The collaboration agreement, which will be approved first by the Government Council of the Canary Islands and by the Council of Ministers of Spain, was valued by President Clavijo as another example of the commitment of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration with the necessary responses. on immigration matters on the islands. “I appreciate, first, the understanding and support conveyed by Minister Escrivá, who was the first minister who attended to us and who quickly began to prepare responses to a situation that we knew was going to occur during the months of calm seas. "said the Canarian president during the visit shared with Escrivá to the island of Herreña, in which the delegate of the Government in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, and the Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families of the Government of the Canary Islands also participated. , Candelaria Delgado.

 

Regarding the distribution of unaccompanied minors who have arrived on the coasts of the archipelago in recent months, Fernando Clavijo stressed that so far the rest of the autonomous communities have only assumed the distribution of four hundred minors, a figure that the president of the Canary Islands considers entirely insufficient given the current circumstances. “Solidarity between territories has to be demonstrated with facts because it does not make sense and it is not enough to refer only a group of minors to solve a challenge that is not a problem for the Canary Islands, or even for Spain. It is a European problem that will continue over time as long as the GDP of the African countries of origin of these people who risk their lives at sea is barely 10% of the European GDP,” highlighted Fernando Clavijo during his speech at El Iron.

 

The president of the Canary Islands also highlighted the commitment of the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration to work with all the public administrations involved to improve the effective response to the considerable increase in arrivals of boats with migrants to the Canary Islands. “The path is dialogue and collaboration between administrations,” said the president, “to put pressure on the European Union to approve a community migration policy once and for all because Europe cannot look the other way and leave El Hierro, "Canary Islands and Spain alone." In this sense, Fernando Clavijo valued the “necessary political collaboration” that Minister Escrivá has transferred to improve resources in the control of migratory flows and, above all, the collaborative attitude of the head of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

 

Fernando Clavijo also came out against “the partisan use” of emigration on the islands by “certain xenophobic, fascist and racist discourses that have no place because, for example, those who came to the Government in Italy with that type of discourse Today they are showing that they have made the situation worse.” On the other hand, the president insisted that "confrontation is not the way because the way must be dialogue and understanding, joint work and pressure on the EU," Clavijo explained to highlight the claim to the Government of Spain to request to the EU member countries to activate the community Civil Protection Mechanism: “Minister Escrivá knows the reality that is currently being experienced in the Canary Islands, and in particular in El Hierro, and we know that he will now transfer this vision to certain departments and ministries of the Government of Spain because that must be the way, collaboration and not tension, xenophobia or racism.”