Spain‘s government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, is facing calls to declare a state of “migratory emergency” across Spain, not just in the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands are the region currently hardest hit by the influx of illegal migrants from West Africa, as reported by the main opposition centre-right Partido Popular (PP) on Monday.
The PP made the call on the day when the PSOE, its left-wing partner Sumar, and Coalición Canaria presented a bill in parliament to reform the current immigration law. The bill aims to make mandatory the distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors among Spain’s 17 autonomous communities.
The aim is to ease the migration burden in particularly vulnerable regions such as the Canary Islands, which suffer, especially in the summer, from the mass arrival of irregular migrants. Many of them are unaccompanied minors who require urgent humanitarian assistance.
The proposal seeks to amend Article 35 of the current immigration law, which establishes the mandatory distribution of migrant minors to other regions when the territory concerned exceeds 150 per cent of its reception capacity.
Migration law criticism
However, in a document sent to Territorial Policy Minister Víctor Ángel Torres (PSOE), the PP complained that the proposal recognised a “migratory emergency” only in the Canary Islands and the Spanish autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. However, it excludes other regions “which are in a situation of migratory collapse.”
In this way, all (the regions) could take advantage of this emergency plan and could, if necessary, tender resources urgently for reception needs.
Youth and Children’s Affairs Minister Sira Rego sharply criticised the PP’s lack of support for the initiative. Meanwhile, Íñigo Errejón, Sumar’s spokesman in parliament, also had harsh words for the PP.
Either you are with the policies of reception and human rights guarantees, or you are with racism and the politics of hate.
The Spanish government wants the initiative to be urgently considered in Parliament to ensure maximum legal guarantees for unaccompanied migrant minors expected to arrive in Canary Islands waters in August.
