Minister Ángel Víctor Torres has responded to the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, stating that the responsibility for receiving those arriving in the Canary Islands by cayuco «with dignity» must be shared by «the whole of Europe and the whole of Spain», and that they have no intention of turning the islands into «a prison for migrants«.
Before taking part in a PSOE pre-election campaign event at the Canarias 7 newspaper, the Minister for Territorial Policy commented on Núñez Feijóo’s criticism of the Government’s decision to transfer migrants arriving on El Hierro to the mainland once they have been registered by the police, in order to ease the pressure on the islands‘ initial reception system.
«We must prevent the problem, not spread it across Spain and export it to Europe,» the PP’s candidate for Prime Minister wrote on the social media platform X on Sunday.
Canary Islands: Torres warns against the long-term accommodation of migrants
Torres, who chairs the Interministerial Commission on Immigration, replied as follows: «If they say that migrants cannot travel to the rest of Spain, they are clearly saying that the thousands of migrants arriving in El Hierro at the moment should stay in El Hierro. They are turning the Canary Islands into a permanent CATE, into a prison for migrants. That is their proposal on immigration. It is not ours, naturally.»
The former president of the Canary Islands has emphasised that this is not the Government’s interpretation of the intentions of the PP and Vox, but rather something that both parties «state in all their speeches: migrants remain in the border territories».
«That is a major blow for the Canary Islands,» he warned.
Atlantic route sees arrival figures rise once again
Asked about the current situation in the Canary Islands, where more than 12,000 migrants have been rescued since 1 October, the majority of them on El Hierro, Torres pointed out that the Atlantic Route experiences «peaks» on a «cyclical» basis and that it is currently seeing an upturn.
In a context such as this, Torres has argued that a humanitarian response is needed, because «these are human beings», and has criticised those who, on the one hand, «lament the deaths at sea» and, at the same time, describe those arriving in cayucos as «invaders».
Ahead of the elections, he has «clearly» called on the people of the Canary Islands to be aware that «the PP and Vox’s proposal regarding migrants is that they should remain in the border territories».
Immigration Commission discusses new support measures for El Hierro
This Tuesday, the Interministerial Commission on Immigration will meet in Madrid to discuss the situation on El Hierro, at an extraordinary meeting to which the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo (CC), and the President of the El Hierro Island Council, Alpidio Armas (PSOE), have been invited.
Despite the differences that have arisen between them in recent weeks, Torres has praised «the institutional loyalty» with which the Canary Islands Government (PP-CC) is working on this issue and announced that new measures will be adopted by the Interministerial Committee.
«The Spanish Government will set out what we are doing, what needs to be done and what we can continue to do: financial aid, human resources, support for the island of El Hierro in the face of a phenomenon that is cyclical, that is not new, that is not unprecedented, that we are familiar with and that we have overcome on other occasions. And how will we overcome it now? With a response befitting human beings,» he emphasised.
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