Clavijo Acknowledges Challenges as Migrant Influx Overwhelms Lanzarote and El Hierro
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE 6 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, acknowledged this Wednesday that the Canary Islands are experiencing “challenging days” due to the relentless influx of migrant vessels, which have resulted in the reception services in Lanzarote and El Hierro becoming “overwhelmed”.
Speaking to reporters, he pointed out that his Government had previously indicated that the influx of migrants would be “significant” as soon as navigation conditions improved, and now they are collaborating “as a collective” to ensure adequate reception, even utilising the tents set up by the Canary Islands Government in Lanzarote for minors which are now being assigned for adults.
The president expressed hope that “political awareness will be awakened” and that there will finally be an understanding that this situation is structural, not temporary, and will persist in the long term. This underlines the “necessity for a sustainable response”.
Clavijo lamented the lack of a scheduled date for the meeting to discuss the reform of immigration legislation or for the Conference of Presidents. He recognised that the current priorities “are what they are” due to the DANA that has impacted Valencia, “and we must be empathetic”, but he made it clear that the scenario unfolding in the Canary Islands “is also an urgent situation”.
“I refuse to accept that it is normal for people to continue losing their lives while attempting to reach our shores, or for more than 50 individuals to perish and for bodies to keep emerging. I believe that once the Government deals with the emergency in Valencia, it must also focus on other pressing matters,” he emphasised.
In this context, he remarked that “there are thousands of civil servants, and hundreds of public positions” in Spain, indicating that the impact of DANA has subsided, and with a Canary Islands populace that has “rallied together”, it is crucial that “work continues” because the archipelago has been experiencing a crisis for over a year.
“We continue to advocate and hope that in the forthcoming days the Spanish Government will inform us of when the sit-in and the meeting will occur and the planned date for the Conference of Presidents,” he asserted.
