The Diplomat
The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, announced yesterday that the Government will enable budget items amounting to 50 million euros before the end of the year to compensate the Canary Islands for the costs of caring for unaccompanied migrant minors
The arrival of migrants in the Canary Islands has increased by 126%. As of August 15, 22,304 people had arrived in the Canary Islands, 126% more than in the same period in 2023, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
Torres’ announcement was made to journalists, after the meeting held on the island of La Palma by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the regional president, Fernando Clavijo. The minister assured that work will be done with the ministries to make the money available, although the General State Budgets are extended. And in any case, the Canary Islands warn that this amount is insufficient.
Torres said that the 50 million, in line with those already transferred in 2022 and 2023, will be an “important relief” for the islands and there is a “commitment” from the Ministry of Finance to unblock these funds.
The minister also announced in his appearance that work will be intensified with the PP and the rest of the parliamentary groups to achieve the modification of the immigration law and make the distribution of minors among the autonomous communities mandatory because they consider that it is the “only solution” to decongest the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, mainly.
Torres confessed that the meeting did not explicitly discuss the approval of a royal decree law for the referral of minors, but he understands that, in any case, the problem lies in the fact that there is not enough support to validate it in Congress – in fact, he recalled that in 2018 one was approved that was not applied because it was voluntary.
Along these lines, he said that since the admission to process was rejected in Congress on July 23, contact with the parliamentary groups has not been “broken” and he hopes that the PP will join in the support and that “moving forward and looking for formulas” can be done.
Torres asked the PP, which co-governs in the Canary Islands and is at the head of Ceuta and Melilla and the majority of the autonomous communities, to be on the “side of the solution and not the problem”, given that the reform of the immigration law is a “historic solution”.
For his part, the Canarian president, Fernando Clavijo, said that the meeting with Sánchez had been “cordial”, but he will be “satisfied” when the agreements are fulfilled. “I think that the president was aware and knew of the difficulties we are going through,” he said, and thanked the financial commitment to cover the resources for the care of minors, but insisted that “next week we will talk about the amount.”
Likewise, Clavijo interpreted Sánchez’s urgency and agreed that the solution to the migration issue involves modifying article 35 of the Immigration Law because “it is not a temporary phenomenon, but a structural one.” In addition, he warned that “this will be a nightmare in September, October or November” if this modification of the law is not approved by law.
The regional president hoped that the agreement between the Executive and the rest of the communities will arrive in “10 or 15 days at most” because, otherwise, in the next few days “we will not have an answer.” He also criticised that, if there is no agreement, “all of us” regional presidents will be involved, because “it is a responsibility that belongs to everyone and not exclusively to the Canary Islands”.
