An open wound and Spain's lack of solidarity

The Canary Islands are an archipelago located just over 100 kilometers off the African coast. Here lives a society accustomed to migratory flows. At times in their history, the economic and political situation has forced part of their population to migrate in search of new opportunities. In recent decades, we have been a land of opportunity for people from different latitudes who have found a place to live here. Specifically, in the last three decades, a circumstance has arisen that has us constantly on alert and alarmed: the attempt to reach Europe and survive by people leaving in canoes, small boats, or inflatable boats from the various countries neighboring the islands, mainly Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Senegal. 

 

The Spanish State manages this border within its territory with sustained negligence and, furthermore, makes decisions about it behind the backs of the institutions that we, the people who live here, have democratically elected. Article 144 of our Statute of Autonomy, approved by the Parliament of the Canary Islands and ratified by the Congress of Deputies, states: The Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands will participate in State decisions on immigration that are particularly relevant to the Canary Islands, given their geographical location, through the coordinating bodies provided for in sectoral legislation and, in particular, the mandatory prior participation in determining the quota of foreign workers through the mechanisms provided for in this Statute. And the truth is that decisions have been made that directly affect this migratory route, or agreements have been reached with third countries in which the voice of the Canary Islands has not been taken into account, and we have not even been consulted. We are not talking about a lack of solidarity, but rather a fine portrait of the colonial perception by the State of an overseas territory like the Canary Islands.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the European Union has built walls and externalized borders without providing this archipelago, anchored in the middle of the Atlantic, with the necessary support to assist those fleeing poverty, violence, or climate change. Nor has the necessary investment at its source been approved to facilitate its development and reverse a situation that kills and renders invisible thousands of people in an Atlantic Ocean that has become a disastrous mass grave. 

 

The Spanish government's irresponsibility, the PP's disregard for its participation in the search for solutions, the refusal of all regions (except Catalonia and the Basque Country) to share the care of minors, and the perception that the EU treats the Canary Islands as a second-class territory in this area are generating enormous frustration among citizens. 

 

This is not something attributable to a temporary emergency, a single moment in time. Humanity has been bleeding along this border for decades, and the intensity of the wound has increased in recent years. According to UNHCR data, more than 2023 people arrived on the islands in 39.000. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, 2024 people arrived in 46.483. The State's response remains anchored in an emergency perspective. And this perspective limits the sustainable development of migratory flows and is responsible for the slow, improvised, and, in many cases, inhumane response. And the Canary Islands, during this time, face overcrowded reception centers, a lack of healthcare resources in certain parts of the archipelago, and growing social tension fueled by institutional neglect. The cayuco crisis of 2006 has largely been overcome. 

 

In his article "Europe, a Fortress Without Doors," philosopher Santiago Alba Rico states that "Europe doesn't just externalize its borders; it also externalizes its filth, its guilt, and its violence. And it does so toward the South, as always, because the South is not a geographical direction but a historical hierarchy. The same countries that plundered Africa for centuries now demand that it guard their borders and receive their deportations." Spain, as a gateway to the European Union, has signed agreements with African countries to curb migration, but has not developed a decent reception system in the Canary Islands, nor does it comply with the Supreme Court's ruling requiring it to accept minors seeking international protection who are in the Canary Islands, nor has it achieved effective coordination for equitable distribution among autonomous communities that guarantees equality between migrant boys and girls hosted on the islands. A kind of forced containment is applied to minors without adult role models. 

 

Journalist and activist Helena Maleno, of Caminando Fronteras, is right when she denounces the Canary Islands as a laboratory for the cruelest migration policies. People are left in inhumane conditions to discourage others from coming, but that doesn't solve anything. It only increases the suffering.

 

This sustained lack of solidarity not only affects migrants, who are exposed to need, death, and social exclusion due to poor governance of migration flows. It also affects the Canary Islands population. Municipalities, island councils, and the Canary Islands government are assuming responsibility for covering the emergency with urgent and necessary investments, and xenophobia finds in this situation a fertile ground, fueled by inaction and a lack of response. Sociologist Sami Naïr, a specialist in migration movements, has repeatedly pointed out that when a territory is used as a wall and then ignored, it creates a breeding ground for resentment. In his book, *The Future of Human Mobility*, he makes it clear that "repressive management of migration not only fails, but fuels racism and social division. Solidarity must be material, not rhetorical." Or, to put it another way, it must translate into resources and shared responsibility.

 

From the Gran Canaria Island Council, through the Gran Canaria Convive program, we are working closely with municipalities to address local residents' needs. We are doing so from an intercultural and local perspective, recognizing that we are part of a global migration landscape while also addressing local needs. 

 

In recent months, there has been a sharp decline in arrivals by coast, but even so, while we wait to see if this trend is consolidating due to the relative stabilization of our environment, we need a decent reception system, clearly funded by the State, with adequate centers and updated protocols. It is important that the mechanisms for distributing minors are activated to avoid border saturation. It is important that the State become more decisively involved in cooperation policies with our neighboring countries and that it unabashedly defend that this investment not only benefits third countries, but also its own. And it is important to align the Canarian political forces with greater pressure on the European Union and Spain to decisively support these policies and understand that repression alone will not achieve optimal management of migratory flows. It is important that they understand that we are not their backyard, nor their laboratory for migration policies, nor the jailers of their dreams of racial homogeneity. 

 

The African Canary Islands currently represent a reflection of Europe's contradictions. If Spain and the European Union believe in human rights, they must act coherently. It is not enough to mourn the tragedies in the Atlantic while abandoning those who arrive alive. I ask them to comply with the Statute of Autonomy, to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling, to activate the distribution mechanism for migrant minors without adult representatives, and to stop treating the Canary Islands as a colony. And if they don't, they should assume responsibility. As long as they don't assume their responsibility, the lack of solidarity will continue to be an open wound that bleeds and weeps in the Atlantic.