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ARCHIVED - 8 more drowned as the migratory crisis in the Canaries continues
The Navy rejects calls for a blockade to turn away migrants from Africa
The migratory crisis in the Canary Islands continues to show little sign of abating as hundreds of people crowd onto small boats in an attempt to enter Spanish and EU territory from Africa via the Atlantic, and earlier this week the situation once again hit the headlines when eight migrants lost their lives on reaching the small harbour of Órzola in the north of Lanzarote.
Their boat capsized in choppy sea conditions after colliding with a jetty just hours after another small vessel with 28 occupants had reached the nearby island of La Graciosa, and the emergency services staff already attending to those who had reached land rapidly turned their attention to searching for the survivors of the sunken craft. 27 were found, some of them by local residents who bravely took to the water to help the rescue operation, and although all of those brought safe and sound to land were males they reported that among their companions had been women and children.
After receiving medical attention from Red Cross staff the survivors underwent Covid tests before joining other migrants awaiting the initiation of deportation procedures at the facilities in Playa Honda (San Bartolomé).
Large migrant camps create fears of the islands becoming a migrant detention facility
Unfortunately, though, the overcrowding at immigrant detention centres in the archipelago continues to be extreme, and the question of what to do with the thousands of migrants currently held in custody is proving an almost impossible one to answer satisfactorily. The Spanish government is steadfastly refusing to ease the strain on resources in the Canaries by transporting migrants to the mainland, presumably concerned that by setting such a precedent they would simply encourage even more desperate Africans to undertake the perilous journey, but there is no question that the facilities in the islands are inadequate to cope with the flood of new arrivals this year.
A temporary solution has been provided by the creation of seven large migrant camps, but in the longer term this has met with opposition from residents who are worried that the strategy could transform the Canaries into a migrant collection point similar to the Spanish north African of Melilla, Lampedusa in Italy or the Greek island of Lesbos.
Vox calls for naval blockade
Another alternative proposed by members of the right-wing political party Vox is to deploy the Navy to intercept and turn back all the migrant boats heading for the Canaries from northern Africa by means of a maritime blockade, but of course this poses serious moral and ethical problems. Responding to the suggestion, Admiral Teodoro López Calderón referred to the Navy’s “legal and moral” obligation to sabe the lives of migrants at sea rather than turning them back, but Vox representatives continue to refer to the arrival of well over 17,000 migrants so far this year as an “invasion”.
According to Vox, most of the small boats reaching the islands set sail from “mother ships” a few kilometres from the coast, but the Navy denies any knowledge of such practices.
European policy towards migration leaves member states with significant internal problems
The Migration Pact that the European Commission presented after the summer and that is still under discussion does not affect the national powers of each member state because the executive arm of the European Union cannot propose legislation that goes beyond what the treaties consider community competencies.
So in effect, Spain must deal with the migrants that reach its own territories as it sees fit, and although politicians from across the political spectrum are calling for irregular migration to be dealt with more effectively by Brussels, this is not going to happen any time soon and Spain must work out how to handle this current situation on its own.
In her recent visit to the Canary Islands, the European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, warned that "economic immigrants" who arrive in Europe and do not have the right to international protection "must be returned to their countries" and added that, although the EU needs migration, because the population of Europe is aging and a younger workforce is required, it can only take on those that arrive by "legal means". Johansson assured that she "will seek a way" for the EU to continue cooperating with African countries in training their police forces to control their borders.
Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who has been heavily criticised for what is widely seen as an “inadequate response” to the current situation facing the Canary Islands and for the problems experienced in the last three months by other Mediterranean regions, has initiated a round of diplomatic meetings with the countries from which the migrants are sailing, to try and find ways in which Morocco and Algeria can prevent the boats leaving in the first place, a highly complicated situation as both countries are themselves pressured by the constant arrival of Sub-saharans and migrants from other African countries trying to get to the coast so they can take a boat to Europe.
When in Rabat last week, Marlaska said that the Government wants to prevent the Canary Islands from becoming "the means of irregular entry into Europe."
But Marlaska's refusal to transfer migrants from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula makes the islands the “stopper” for the Canaries migration route, one of the most dangerous. Between 500 and 1,000 people are believed to have lost their lives crossing from the African coast to the Canary Islands so far this year and now thousands of migrants are effectively stranded on the islands.
He is not alone in his decision not to transfer migrants from the islands in which they land to the mainland; the decision to leave thousands of refugees and migrants on the Aegean islands and not take them to Athens, for example, is made by the Greek government, not the European Commission.
European migration policy remains weak and imprecise due to the pressure that has existed in recent years at various points on its external borders, but the waves of migrants and refugees who seek to enter Europe do not stop and it is the member states in most cases, that are left with no choice other than to try and deal with the issue themselves.
How Spain is going to handle the thousands of economic migrants trying to enter Europe through the Canary Islands, Andalucía, Murcia and Valencia regions, is becoming an increasingly divisive political hot potato.
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