ARCHIVED - Migrant crisis in the Canary Islands as detention facilities spill over

Over 200 irregular migrants were released from overcrowded Red Cross facilities into the streets with nowhere to go

This year has seen a spectacular increase in the number of irregular migrants attempting to reach EU territory via the Canary Islands by making perilous Atlantic voyages from western Africa, and the migratory crisis has reached boiling point in the islands this week as the latest wave of small boats arriving has led to there simply not being enough room to hold the migrants.

By the end of October at least 400 migrants were known to have died while attempting to sail to the Canaries, but this week attention in the Spanish media has shifted to the problems caused by the numbers of people making the crossing successfully. By 15th November the number of unauthorized arrivals in the islands this year had reached 16,760, eleven times more than in the equivalent period last year and considerably higher than the total for the other Mediterranean coastlines of Spain.

During the first fortnight of this month migrants had been arriving at an average rate of 356 per day, and the total for the month between 15th October and 15th November was more than for the whole of the first nine and a half months of the year. As a result of this influx of unauthorized migrants, and with the figures rising still higher over the weekend, it appears that the overstretched detention centres facilities reached breaking point at the Red Cross temporary detention facility on the quay of Arguineguín in Gran Canaria, which was designed to hold just over 400 people.

In recent weeks Arguineguín has been acting as a temporary home to over 2,000 irregular economic migrants, many of them young men looking for work, crammed into a tiny area with basic food, inadequate sanitation and barely enough room to stretch their legs. Local residents were aware of the seriousness of the situation as the number of people on the quay exceeded the official population, but it did not become clear to the rest of Spain until the police, in what has now been described as an “error” by the Ministry of the Interior, released 227 migrants without alternative accommodation having been provided, effectively leaving them free to roam the streets. The officers concerned reasoned that the permitted 72 hours for detaining people without a charge being issued had elapsed and that the crowded conditions constituted a health hazard.

The local town hall of Mogán was horrified and put out a statement saying that the National Police had opened the port entrances to let them loose in the streets of the town without any kind of vigilance or anywhere to go. The Mayoress of Mogán, Onalia Bueno, chartered three buses to the Plaza de la Feria, an area close to the Government Delegation itself, various voluntary organisations and the Consulate of Morocco. She also supplied a translator so that the migrants understood what was happening.

"We had to address the situation because we cannot have all these people wandering around the municipality or Gran Canaria without means," said the Mayoress: "These people have the right to decent accommodation," she said.

Space was hurriedly found for 139 of those who were “evicted” from Arguineguín at a tourist bungalow complex a few kilometres away in Maspalomas, but owners of the apartments and tourism representatives are voicing their concern about the situation: other tourist accommodation has already been called into use for the same purpose, and the owners are keen to keep rooms free as they hope to salvage something from the winter tourist season, although they are also concerned about the humanitarian implications of the situation.

Ángel Víctor Torres, the president of the regional government, has denied any knowledge of who gave the order to allow the migrants to leave Arguineguín and requested that at least some of the burden be lightened by the transport of migrants to other regions of Spain, but those who wanted to sail to Huelva on the Spanish mainland have been denied permission to travel due to their having no official paperwork: again a rapid solution was found for their predicament as the Red Cross relocated them to a hotel in southern Tenerife, as they are permitted to travel from island to island.

However, the migrants are unable to leave the islands through their own means as the ferry companies have all said that they will not take anyone across to mainland Spain who does not have a valid passport. Tonight at least 20 migrants ( mainly Algerians and Moroccans, who are economic migrants, not refugees) are sleeping rough by the ferry port and refusing to move elsewhere, protesting that they want to go to Spain, even though they have no legal right to do so.

Further difficulties are caused by the fact that no other region is keen on taking the migrants in, and the Canaries Government has appealed for other areas of Spain to help them relocate the migrants.

In this context, and looking further ahead, Sr Torres has called for the EU to define the “migratory model” which it hopes to achieve in the long term, while in the meantime he demands stricter measures to deal with what has developed this year from a problem into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Among the steps he hopes for are greater vigilance on the part of coastguards and other authorities, support for the countries of origin of the migrants and the provision of more adequate facilities for those who do succeed in reaching the Canaries, as well as more help in transferring the migrants from the islands.

The regional president expressed optimism that immediate action can be decided upon this Friday, when the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, travels to Morocco for a meeting with his counterpart in the north African country.

Sr Torres also points out the Canaries already provide a home for over 2,000 minors who have travelled to the islands unaccompanied by an adult, and that the deportation process for other migrants has been made more complicated by the Covid pandemic. But at the root of his calls for urgent action is the remote, and economically fragile nature of the Canaries, which means that it is just not possible to take in so many people and home them.

This attitude came to the fore on Tuesday in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, when most of the migrants who had been released were removed from Arguineguín to the Plaza de La Feria in the island capital: while it is true that a few people insulted them in the streets, far more showed their support and concern by offering them food and water.

Although this gesture shows the genuine sympathy felt by the townspeople for the situation in which the migrants find themselves (recently there have been at least two protests in the town of Mogán against the conditions in which the migrants are living) , but the feeling in the Canaries is that is should not be necessary and that the warnings which have been repeated throughout 2020 by the regional government and groups such as Human Rights Watch have been largely ignored. Since March the Red Cross and other organizations have not only been offering first aid and sustenance to the growing numbers of migrants but have also been ensuring that they are tested for Covid-19, and there have been numerous reports of new arrivals spending up to 24 hours sitting on the quay at Arguineguín before receiving any kind of attention due to the resources available being totally overwhelmed.

Over 70 people currently in the docks in the care of the Cruz Roja are reported to be observing quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.

The majority of the recent wave of irregular migrants are coming from Algeria and Morocco, and are young men in search of work, so are referred to by the EU as irregular immigrants and are economic migrants, not refugees.

Neither country is an EU member, so although nationals from both countries may legally enter Spain with a valid passport, they are not permitted to cross the border without valid documentation.

As Spain is an EU member, it has to follow EU guidelines on migration and cannot "send the migrants back" without going through a repatriation process which has been impossible to implement due to the covid situation.

In the last few months, most of the migrants who have reached the Spanish mainland have simply been released to continue their journey, which takes some of them into France or Belgium, whilst others join the throngs of migrants attempting to reach the UK. These "sin papeles" are not allowed to work legally in Spain, a situation which opens many up to exploitation as they are forced to work "under the radar illegally" if they stay in Spain.

The Spanish government cannot legalise these irregular migrants and enable them to work without encouraging potentially hundreds of thousands more people looking for a better life who would themselves attempt to get into Spain due to the current economic situation in Morocco and Algeria.