Spain announced an extra €50 million to help the Canary Islands currently overwhelmed with more than 5,500 unaccompanied migrant children and teenagers.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with Canary Islands regional President Fernando Clavijo on Friday to address the issue of irregular migration, as the islands struggle to care for thousands of unaccompanied minors who have arrived there.
The socialist leader had been on vacation with his family in Lanzarote, part of the Canary Islands, but has now resumed work. He held discussions with Clavijo, who leads the Canary Islands government in coalition with the conservative Popular Party.
The Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean closer to northwestern Africa than mainland Spain, have seen a steady influx of overcrowded boats carrying migrants.
Sánchez’s meeting with Clavijo on the island of La Palma comes just days before the prime minister’s scheduled visits to Mauritania, Senegal, and Gambia, key departure points for migrants attempting to reach the islands by sea.
Although Sánchez did not make any public statements after the meeting, Spain’s Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Victor Torres, a former leader of the Canary Islands, described the talks as productive. Torres announced that the Spanish government would allocate €50 million to the archipelago, a sum that had been provided in previous years but was omitted this year.
The Canary Islands have become a major entry point for irregular migrants into the European Union. While adult migrants and refugees typically move on to mainland Spain or other parts of Europe after arriving, unaccompanied minors remain under the responsibility of the regional government, which is struggling to cope.
The Canary Islands government, which has the capacity to care for 2,000 minors, is currently overwhelmed with more than 5,500 unaccompanied children and teenagers. Many of these minors arrived alone or lost their parents during the perilous boat journey from Africa. As a result, many are living in overcrowded shelters with limited access to education, healthcare, legal services, and other rights guaranteed under EU and Spanish law.
Torres stated that Sánchez and Clavijo are committed to working on long-term solutions, which would require legislative changes to make solidarity among Spain’s regions mandatory. However, a recent attempt to pass such a law in July failed, as lawmakers, including those from the Popular Party, refused to consider a proposal that would have required other regions to take in some of the unaccompanied minors.
From January to mid-August this year, over 22,300 people have arrived in the Canary Islands, a 126% increase compared to the same period last year, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry.
On Friday, Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service reported rescuing 173 people, including six babies and eight women, and recovering two bodies from a boat near the island of El Hierro.
The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. While exact numbers are hard to come by due to limited information on departures from West Africa, the Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders estimates that the death toll is in the thousands. Migrant boats that become lost or encounter difficulties often disappear, with some drifting across the ocean for months before being discovered in the Caribbean or Latin America, carrying only the remains of those who were on board.
