The Supreme Court order which gave the Government until November 21st to place migrant minors who have requested asylum in its centers is causing more than a disappointment to the organizations that work with these children and to the families who look after them. The Court’s first resolution arrived in March, but the political struggle prevented it from proceeding until now, when haste plays tricks on it. “I have never seen the child cry like today,” says one of the mothers Canary Islands of a Malian transferred overnight from his reception center in Tenerife, by the community, to Las Palmas, to the Canarias 50 center, by the Government. And she can’t hold back the tears on the other end of the phone either.
It was the Canary Islands that welcomed minors who ask for asylum at the Supreme Court because their centers are saturated, and it is up to the community to prepare dossiers for each of them, with their particular situation, so that they can be located by the Ministry of Migration without major interruptions. But many of them don’t want to go to the peninsula because they already have school, their friends and their own families on the islands. The Supreme Court ruled this, but the lack of government places in the community to resettle more than 600 children has caused situations of uprooting, the organizations denounce.
Humanitarian associations ensure that the greater good of the minor is “violated”. This Tuesday several young people left the centers in the Canaries to go to the capital of the islands, to Canarias 50, a macro center where they will have to be interviewed to evaluate their preferences. The minors had to mourn, but also their caregivers and the families who have provided them with support and shelter for years.
One of them, who we will call Luis, received the news this Monday afternoon, as he was leaving school, that he had to leave Tenerife and leave for Las Palmas, in Canarias 50. mother She couldn’t stop crying on the phone minutes after saying goodbye to him. “He is a boy who arrived a year ago after spending 20 days at sea, he was in cardiopulmonary arrest and they told us to call his family in Mali because he was dying. But he woke up from a coma. He was 15 years old and has always been by our side, like a son”, says the woman, who does not give her name to protect the boy. With him, nine other minors left his center in Tenerife, all with the same fate, which may not be the last. “They treat them as if they were packages. Luis doesn’t want to leave, he speaks perfect French and Spanish and is registered to do FP in Electronics. Since his arrival he has received regular medical care and visits. These children are not listened to”, says the woman. Many cried.
“There is not a very precise interpretation of the Supreme Court order, which asks that the right to international protection of these children be addressed, but not that they necessarily be transferred. Of course, the centers are saturated in the Canary Islands, but nothing prevents the creation of new places,” says an immigration lawyer, who requests anonymity. “What doesn’t make sense,” he adds, “is for them to be uprooted, nor for them to be encouraged to give up asylum for this reason, which is happening. Children must be listened to and their interest must be determined individually, as required by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the law on the legal protection of minors in Spain,” he says. But, he says, they transfer them to Las Palmas without having spoken to them first, from one day to the next. “This is a waste of resources. Yes, the Canary Islands must have everyone’s dossiers, but what is written in them, they cannot just be documents. If they are successfully enrolled in school, if they have friends and host family, if they have found a job, if they have integrated into their neighborhood, all this is not included in the dossiers,” he says. This has also been criticized on some occasions by the Ministry of Migration. The Ministry of Social Security claims to have already delivered all the dossiers, with “a titanic effort” and many hours stolen at dawn, its owner, Candelaria Delgado, explained to this newspaper last Friday.
To transfer the children it is necessary to carry out a personal interview, which is carried out by Engloba, a body specializing in reception, together with technicians from the Canary Islands government and representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office. “Every decision is made after listening to the minor, taking into account his particular needs and always adopting differentiated treatment based on his age, sex, rooting situation and his transition to adult life”, they state in the Secretariat of State for Migration. They also ensure that “no minor who wanted to stay in the Canary Islands has been transferred to the peninsula and that girls, those under 14 and those who have expressed the desire to stay are interviewed in their respective centres”. In any case, they add, for those who claim to have roots, the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office is awaited.
Hundreds of children have already been transferred, both on the peninsula and in Canarias 50, a macro center that today has fewer and fewer adults and more and more minors, explains Jacomar Bolaños, of the NGO Paz desde el deporte, who works there with many of them. The plant belongs to the government and in this way they comply with the Supreme Court ruling. Once there, personal interviews are carried out before being directed to centers in “greater Spain”, as some of these children call the peninsula. The time spent in the Canarias 50 sometimes takes too long. Omar spent three months, instead of the promised 15 days, before being taken to Almería in July. Miguel Llorca, retired professor from the University of La Laguna, who coordinates the Sansofé Campus, a social inclusion project through sport, tells the story. “I once went to Las Palmas to talk to him, but they wouldn’t let me see him. Eventually he expressed his intention to travel, but was on the verge of giving up,” he says.
The confusion echoes in the Canary Islands, where situations are emerging like that of the children of Arucas, a city where parents demonstrated demanding to be left where they are, with their families, with their football team, with their lives. They claim to have been taken from their centers without saying anything and transferred to Canarias 50. Many are waiting to see how their situation will be resolved.
Two complaints have already arrived at the Municipality of the Islands Deputy, Lola Padrón, equivalent to the Ombudsman. These are just two reports, but I already suspect there are more cases. She will not open an official investigation, but will appropriately examine the two complaints submitted to her to “see what is happening”. “I think there is a lack of sitting down and talking to these minors. If a child goes to school, has roots, has families that support him, we need to do good practice before transferring him, but I receive complaints when they are already transferred,” says Padrón. In any case, he asks “that minors be listened to. If they don’t want to leave and already have a (life) plan, they stay. They cannot be in class today and tomorrow tell them that they are leaving. It’s not about packages, a child is a life and there are many people who are helping in these (inclusion) processes”, adds Padrón.
Ministry sources say they asked the Ministry for interviews with the boys to take place in their centres, but they did not obtain this and they were transferred to Canarias 50, “hence the complaints”, they say.
The Secretary of State for Migration, Pilar Cancela, reported Tuesday that 551 minors are already in the state foster care system and that around 200 are missing. He assured that the terms established by the Supreme Court order will be respected and Candela took the opportunity to demand from the Canary Islands the documentation of the change of protection of minors already in the peninsula, “since the absence of this procedure is generating significant problems for the institutions that deal with their reception and, above all, for the minors themselves.”
The Secretariat of State has announced an extension of the immigration emergency until March 31, with a financial injection of 300,000 euros in addition to the 40 million granted after the first orders of the Supreme Court, so that contracts, rentals and rehabilitation of housing can be stipulated as well as satisfying the needs of rest, food, hygiene, safety, translation and other needs of minors. While all this reaches the Canary Islands, tears are common in juvenile centers these days.
