The migratory pressure that supports Andalusia with the continuous arrival of boats has been increased in recent months by the dispersal of illegal immigrants arrived in the Canary Islands. The Board has denounced the continuous shipment from the islands of minors unaccompanied foreigners (menas) arriving camouflaged as adults and that they remain under the guardianship of the autonomous government, which warns that the reception system “is at risk of collapse.” As of this Tuesday, March 19, there are already confirmed 261 immigrant minors who have landed in Andalusia from the Canary Islands as if they were of legal age.
The Board estimates that since October some 6,200 illegal immigrants to Andalusia in different contingents from the Canary Islands, all of them with adult decrees, but among them there have been glued a large number of ores. These unaccompanied children and adolescents enter child protection centers, which is generating “a worrying saturation” of the specific resources allocated for this.
«It can happen 10, 12, 15 times, okay; but this It's an incessant drip. The number does not stop growing. They are arriving as adults as minors and we are obliged to care for them, but specific resources for menas are running out. In the last month, about 70 have arrived and this Tuesday another six more,” the Board tells OKDIARIO Andalucía.
When the Red Cross and the various NGOs suspect that an immigrant classified as an adult may be a minor, the mandatory measures are requested. Physical testsand is the Prosecutor's Office who determines your real age. “We don't know if tests are not done in the Canary Islands or if they are done poorly, but the number continues to rise,” the aforementioned sources highlight. Furthermore, once they reach the age of 18, the menas become formerly protected youthwhich also implies monitoring.
The Board is forced to “exert effort” and implement specific interventions, such as the need for housing for a certain period of time. «All this responsibility is being assumed with lungs, without help “some of the central Executive, despite being responsible for the transfers,” they warn.
But the Sánchez Government does not recognize these cases and the Andalusian Administration demands more “help and financing” to “deal with them as they deserve.” They only ask for “information and transparency.” In the last distribution, 36 minors arriving from Ceuta, the central government contributed 1.9 million, so, based on this correlation, 11.4 million would be needed to welcome the 261 immigrant minors arriving from the Canary Islands.
Meanwhile, the boats continue crossing the Strait, and the open fronts multiply: with the arrival of good weather, the departure of boats from North Africa skyrockets again. Furthermore, the Board warns of a change in the profile of immigrantswhich causes a funnel effect: If before they arrived with a certain family roots and used Spain only as a country of passage to disperse throughout Europe, the recent arrivals from territories in conflict such as Mali or Senegal do so without any type of roots, so they decide to stay. «Years ago there was a greater flow, some entered and others left, towards France or Germany, where they had family or friends, but that is changing. Now they come and stay.
Andalusia participated this Monday in the second Immigration Sector Conference of the legislature with the autonomous communities, chaired by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, in which she has demanded that the Government “immediately” activate a contingency plan retroactively when determining the future distribution of unaccompanied minors and the corresponding financing to “guarantee their specific attention.”
On February 22, in response to a question from the PP in Congress, the Ministry of the Interior estimated the number of unaccompanied minors arriving at 3,884. Canary Islands in 2023. In total, the island received last year 56,500 irregular immigrants. The number continues to grow in 2024, with the arrival of 14,000 more during January and February, the months with the most adverse weather conditions, figures that quadruple arrivals by sea compared to the same period of the previous year.