Canary Islands Opposition Calls for Enforcement of Morocco-Spain Migrant Agreement

The president of the Canary Islands "can no longer wait for the Sánchez government and must take his responsibilities, within the limits of his powers, to mitigate the consequences of the migration phenomenon," said the spokesman for the PP parliamentary group in a statement. Australia Navarro recalled that the PSOE’s commitment to the migration crisis that the Canary Islands has been experiencing since 2019 is "null," as evidenced among other things by "the refusal for 3 years to install the Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE in its Spanish acronym) neglecting the request for help in the management of unaccompanied minors and, finally, the indefinite suspension, unjustified and inexplicable, of the study commission in the upper house that leaves the islands without answers on immigration."

To read: Spanish Government Faces Backlash Over Controversial Repatriation of Moroccan Minors

For the head of the Canarian PP, "the irresponsibility and laziness that the government of Pedro Sánchez has maintained in the face of the migration crisis in the islands contrast with the rapid reaction that has been observed with regard to Ceuta where the agreement has been implemented with all the necessary legal guarantees." Consequently, Australia Navarro calls on "President Torres to go to Madrid to demand immediate measures and solutions from the Sánchez government to effectively address the "migration emergency" in the Canary Islands, namely the care of more than 2,700 unaccompanied migrant minors."

"Time, lack of measures and facts show us that we cannot continue to wait for the PSOE or the government of Pedro Sánchez, because it is clear that it does not care or is interested in the Canaries and that it is a priority not to go through the establishment of a migration roadmap to prevent the Canary Islands from becoming the hub of illegal immigration from Europe and the trafficking of thousands of human beings," continued Australia Navarro, adding that since the beginning of this year, "8 migrants per day have died or disappeared on the Canary Islands route in search of a better life." "The PP will not allow the government to turn the Canary Islands, as it did in 2020, into another European border without rights for migrants," she concluded.