Moncloa and Vox are “politically using” unaccompanied minors arriving in the Canary Islands as a result of a crisis that has worsened since 2021, but in which the administrative procedures that are being used to deal with the problem have not changed since that first agreement signed by the Government and the autonomous communities to address the saturation situation that the archipelago is suffering.
At the meeting that is being held today, the discussion is focused on money, because the basis of the quota sharing agreement dates back to 2021, and it is the communities themselves that highlight that the agreement has already been implemented in previous years, “with an average of four hundred transfers.”
The financing offered by the Government is clearly deficient, and this is what the communities, mostly governed by the PP, are arguing about. Not whether or not the entry of unaccompanied minors is accepted, which in the case of those with a coast, such as the Valencian Community, already have their own entry of small boats. The Government also sends “minors camouflaged among adults, through the back door,” according to the Valencian Government’s complaints.
The reality is that this is a chaotic issue, in which there is more political use than interest in providing real solutions. In this sense, Vox’s approach is also out of touch with reality, because nothing has changed compared to previous years, and everything is a public procedure that until now they had never used as a threat to break up coalition governments with the PP.
What is most striking is that the urgency that the Government imposes on this issue, and the pressure that they are publicly placing on the PP, identifying it with Vox and labelling it as xenophobic, is not compatible with the private management that they are doing of this matter.
If it is so important to resolve the situation in the Canary Islands due to the problem of migratory pressure, it is logical that today’s meeting should have been prepared internally, without exchanges of messages and accusations through the media, and by proposing prior formulas that would facilitate an agreement once all the parties had met around the working table.
However, there have been no calls from the ministry that has now taken over the direction of this policy, within a scheme of distribution of powers in the government that is chaotic due to the different ministries involved in the matter.
There has therefore been no communication with the communities, beyond the ordinary minutes in which the extraordinary procedures are not recorded, nor is there any mention of the reform of the immigration law, which the PP communities have already announced that, as it is a legislative reform, it must be submitted to Congress. They have not been counted on for the amnesty, nor are there any talks with them about regional financing.
The Government leaked yesterday that its proposal to the communities is to take in 347 migrants from the Canary Islands, in line with the proposals of other years. With Catalonia, Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura being the ones that have to receive the most.
Last year, for example, it was agreed to transfer 373 minors from the Canary Islands and Ceuta to the Peninsula with funding of 20 million euros. However, according to government sources, only 62 were finally taken in by just three communities: Andalusia, Aragon and Asturias. The rest remain in the Canary Islands.
The letter of what is really on the table highlights the scandal that Vox is creating with an issue that is not new and in which there is no extraordinary news beyond the Government’s announcements that have not yet been concretized into anything.
This suggests that the domestic pressure of the Alvise phenomenon, which threatens to take ground away from Santiago Abascal’s party, is behind this, as well as the repositioning of this party in the European arena within the group promoted by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
There are more than 14,000 unaccompanied minors in Spain. And the Canary Islands are home to 43 percent, 6,000 minors who arrived on the islands alone. Before the meeting between the Ministry of Youth and Children and the autonomous communities, Unicef has asked for collaboration in an agreement to depoliticize the crisis.
Faced with Vox’s threat to break up coalition governments, the PP leadership stressed yesterday that there is a government that does not fulfil its obligations and that plays at division, but they do not accept anyone’s challenges either.
“We offer solidarity, but we demand resources,” said PP spokesman Borja Sémper. The PP leader stressed that PP communities take in 81 percent of unaccompanied minors. He also requested a contingency fund with enough money to provide communities with the resources they need.