Spain: New migrant camps in the Canary Islands, following the surge in migrants’ arrivals in the last months and the limited reception capacity. https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/spec... The Civil Liberties Committee discuss the latest developments with Commissioner Ylva Johansson, President of the Canary Islands Ángel Víctor Torres and a representative of the NGO Spanish Commission for Refugees (CEAR).
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According to the Spanish Government, 23 023 migrants and asylum-seekers landed on the archipelago last year irregularly from Africa by boat (compared with 2 687 in 2019). Most of them arrived in the last few months of 2020, leaving reception centres overwhelmed. Combined with the public health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this led to the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation and sparked some protests among the local population.
According to UNHCR data, up to 81% of migrants arriving by boat on the Canary Islands are men, mostly from Morocco, Mali, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. The sea crossing from the African coast can be as short as around 100 km, but the strong currents make it a perilous journey. According to Missing Migrants, in November 2020 alone, the month with most arrivals, over 500 people lost their lives trying to make it to the Canary Islands.
National and regional authorities are speeding up the construction of emergency accommodation, but in the meantime, people are being housed between makeshift camps and tourism resorts, mostly empty because of the pandemic.
Since the beginning of the year, Spain has had to deal with an unprecedented wave of immigrants from sub-Saharian Africa. The desperation of Africa’s people has grown, and the closing of borders has made their immigration routes much more dangerous, when none of the immigrants from sub-Saharian Africa has any legal means of entry into Spain.
From January 1st to August 29th of this year, 19,035 illegal immigrants have reached the shores of the Canary Islands, and 11 boats have been shipwrecked, with 262 dead and 490 dying in their desperate attempt to enter Europe.
Only 4.5% of all immigrants reach Spain through the Canary Islands, and the large majority of them arrive by air and road; the central issue, therefore, is not so much in the number of people arriving (which, however, has undergone a spectacular increase during mid-year) but rather how and in what conditions they arrive, risking their lives and making it quite plain that migration policies that are based only on repressive measures with the aim of constituting a “Fortress Europe” have failed miserably.
The new measures being announced by the Spanish government and the European Union are even more worrying, as they not only serve to block borders but also to besiege sub-Saharian Africa, by preventing people from leaving these countries and openly violating the rights of individuals to leave their country, not only to survive, but also to gain access to a decent standard of living.
The European Union must tackle the phenomenon of immigration from a generous standpoint with respect to all those countries which, like Spain, are the gateway to Europe, by implementing a change in European migration policy within a context in which immigration is laying the foundations for economic growth or the surplus in the Social Security system.
Until such time as a European migration model is defined, The European Green Party asks the EU to increase political and economic aid to Spain with respect to cooperative migration with sub-Saharian Africa, along the following basic lines:
The establishment of stable routes of entry with countries from sub-Saharian Africa in collaboration with other EU member states. The reinforcement of human and material resources in immigrant offices and entry through work research Visas, with the aim of achieving decent employment conditions and reducing the action of illegal networks.
The inclusion of the condition of strict compliance with human rights in border controls in all agreements signed with other countries.
Guaranteeing personalised legal aid to sub-Saraharian immigrants to ensure that their rights to asylum and refuge status are respected in full, offering solutions to all those who arrive with an order of expulsion, who should not be expelled.
The development of a welcome programme for all sub-Saharians who cannot be expelled and who remain in Spain for at least 12 weeks, in order to offer them a basic knowledge of the language and basic professional training.
The creation of a comprehensive welcome system with a longer term for minors and pregnant women.
Providing registration cards to all sub-Saharian immigrants
Significantly increasing labour inspection resources
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