The Diplomat
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has sent a letter to the European Parliament in which he urges the European agency Frontex to recover “maritime surveillance in African waters of the Atlantic” to prevent irregular migration reaching the Canary Islands, considering that its work in this matter has been “disappointing” to date.
“We reiterate our request that Frontex support the EU, Spain and the Canary Islands with surveillance means in Africa, not in waters under Spanish responsibility,” writes Grande-Marlaska in the letter, to which the Europa Press agency has had access. “The reasons for the increase in arrivals in the Canary Islands are not to be found in Spain, but in the countries of origin and transit of irregular immigration,” he adds.
The letter has been sent to the president of the Committee on Freedoms, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament, the Spaniard Javier Zarzalejos (PP) and responds with it to some words of the executive director of Frontex, Hans Leijtens, who, on December 4 of last year, offered the agency’s help to the Canary Islands as long as the Spanish authorities request it. For this reason, the LIBE commission of the European Parliament asked Grande-Marlaska two days ago if the Spanish Government is going to request more assistance from Frontex.
In his response, the Minister of the Interior acknowledges that migratory flows have increased significantly so far in 2024 in Spain, but also in “other Member States”, where “numbers higher than those in Spain” are recorded. He also assures that, “at least until mid-September, the rate of arrivals in the Canary Islands is falling” compared to the data for January.
In the letter, Grande-Marlaska warns of the need for Frontex to patrol in African waters “following the model of Operation Hera, which has not been operational for years”, and recalls that “one of the elements that made it possible to end the so-called cayuco crisis of 2006 was, precisely, the support of Frontex in preventive work”.
“The responses I have received, both in writing and verbally from the executive director of Frontex, the current one and his predecessor, have been disappointing” and, under these conditions, “today it is Spain that continues to support third countries in border surveillance”, he warns.
Grande-Marlaska also states that “no one knows better” than the European Parliament that it is up to Frontex “to sign a Statute agreement with the third country in question”, despite which, he regrets, the agency has not reached this agreement “with any African country from which the boats that arrive in the Canary Islands depart”. “We reiterate our request that Frontex support the EU, Spain and the Canary Islands with surveillance means in Africa, not in waters under Spanish responsibility”, he insists. “The reasons for the increase in arrivals in the Canary Islands are not to be found in Spain, but in the countries of origin and transit of irregular immigration”, he concludes.
