Spain to oblige regions accept a ‘fair distribution’ of migrant children

5 months ago 23

Spain will soon implement a mandatory distribution of immigrant minors to all the country’s regions to relieve the great migratory pressure on the Canary Islands, with hundreds of people arriving every year from the coasts of West Africa.

On Tuesday, representatives of seven ministries met to find compromise on a common line of action and a fair distribution of the migratory burden, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

This January alone, the Canary Islands received 7,270 migrants, travelling in 110 precarious boats (pateras or cayucos in Spanish), which is as many as arrived on their shores during the entire first half of 2023 (7,213 in 150 ships), according to fresh data from the Spanish Interior Ministry.

The migrants arrived mainly on the islands of El Hierro and Gran Canaria, and most of them – 83% – departed from Mauritania.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s (PSOE/S&D) aim is to reform the current Migration Law, of which the latest version came into force in August 2022, so that – for the first time in the Iberian country – the 17 autonomous communities (Comunidades Autónomas) are obliged to accept a compulsory distribution of immigrant minors.

Compulsory solidarity

The new “compulsory solidarity” system is intended to respond to a historical demand of the Canary Islands. It is also a compromise between the ruling socialist party PSOE and the regional conservatives party Coalición Canaria, included in a bilateral agreement signed in November 2023, to bring the Spanish PM and socialist leader back to power.

The new proposal aims to modify Article 35 of the current migration norm, which refers to unaccompanied minors, to establish the obligation to distribute immigrant minors so that they can be taken in throughout Spanish territory.

Spain’s progressive executive seeks to ensure that the welfare resources of “hot spots” of migrant arrivals – such as the Canary Islands – are not overwhelmed, as is happening now, when the authorities on the islands have to deal with the reception of nearly 5,500 migrant children and young people.

The new system that the government wants to approve would place the initial guardianship of the minors in the hands of the state, which would then distribute them among the different autonomous communities so that the Canary Islands would only be responsible for the “temporary custody” of the minors.

An average of 18 migrants a day, or a total of 6,618, lost their lives in 2023 trying to reach Spanish shores – a figure that almost tripled compared to the 2,390 deaths recorded in 2022, a report by the NGO Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) revealed in January.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)