SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 9 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The leader of the Cabildo of Tenerife has this Monday strongly opposed the Ministry of Defence’s proposal to utilise the Cristo barracks and the Polvorín Tabares, both situated in the municipality of La Laguna, as care facilities for unaccompanied migrant minors.
“Tenerife says no, this is not the solution,” he expressed in an interview with ‘Radio Club Tenerife’, as reported by Europa Press, where he noted that, for instance, the powder magazine facility is “dilapidated” and unfit to accommodate anyone.
Nevertheless, he indicated that even if these sites were in acceptable conditions, La Laguna already hosts “two significant immigrant detention centres” in Las Raíces and Las Canteras.
“They aim to transform Tenerife, La Laguna, and the Canary Islands into a massive refugee camp, and we reject this. We have declared that it is enough, no more,” he emphasised.
In line with this, he pointed out that La Laguna, Tenerife, and the Canary Islands “have sufficiently evidenced their solidarity,” yet the archipelago’s capacity “is entirely stretched, it is not merely a question of space.”
He believes that the Ministry of Defence offering these locations “indicates that they have not grasped anything, they have not understood, they do not comprehend the issue; it is not a matter of needing more locations, it is about the lack of manpower, the non-governmental organisations are entirely inundated.”
The president of Tenerife reiterated that the central government has “neglected the Canary Islands” and that it has been “waiting for months” for amendments to the immigration legislation to facilitate the distribution of minors across Spain “in a manner that is equitable and furnished with adequate economic resources for the remaining autonomous communities.”