The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migrations gives "priority" to the transfer of 250 migrant minors seeking international protection to the Canarias 50 center and has specified that the 400 places offered at the CREADE in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, are just "an option" among others.
Ministerial sources have explained to Europa Press that the Pozuelo center was "an option" that was put on the table in last Tuesday’s meeting since it is one of the facilities they have available and that could be adapted to accommodate these minors, but they have insisted that it is a possibility.
According to government sources last Tuesday, after the Interadministrative Committee of the Governments of Spain and the Canary Islands was established to comply with the Supreme Court ruling that requires the Government to take care of about a thousand unaccompanied migrant minors seeking asylum, in this first meeting, it was agreed to expedite the transfer to the Canarias 50 facilities.
This center, offered by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migrations (the part of the resource allocated last year to accommodate women and families, separated and independent from the rest of the modules), will immediately accommodate 250 minors. The facilities are being "adapted" just like they will have to do with the centers in the peninsula that will eventually host the children.
According to ministerial sources, the Canarian Government has just sent the list of minors and will expedite the authorization to the entity Engloba to manage this resource, although they still do not have a scheduled date for the transfers to take place.
Likewise, the Ministry led by Elma Saiz will prepare a document outlining all the steps to be followed from the reception in this center in the Canarias to the referral and subsequent transfer to the peninsula and, in this regard, offered 400 places at the CREADE in Pozuelo. However, the same sources specified that all this will be discussed and finalized in the upcoming meetings scheduled for Tuesdays.
Ministerial sources have reiterated their commitment to complying with the Supreme Court ruling "with all guarantees, not just legal ones" because they are "minors," and have added that all agreements reached will be decided in collaboration with the Government of the Canary Islands.
POZUELO SHOWS ITS REJECTION
Given the forecast that 400 migrant minors will be transferred to Pozuelo, the mayor of Pozuelo de Alarcón, Paloma Tejero, stated on Thursday that the municipality’s CREADE is occupied "almost at 83%" and has warned of "overcrowding."
"If overcrowding has been discussed with 96 minors in Fuenlabrada, it cannot be that 400 does not imply overcrowding, especially because it is in an environment that produces a lot of insecurity, next to a school, next to a hotel residence where university students primarily live, which will generate chaos in the area and has caused great alarm among our neighbors," expressed the mayor to the media from the Town Hall.
Precisely, on Wednesday, the Secretary of State for Migrations, Pilar Cancela, denounced that there is "brutal opposition in any of the territories to open reception facilities for unaccompanied migrant minors with demonstrations promoted by the far-right and tolerated by the Popular Party."
This was stated by Cancela during her participation in one of the summer courses at El Escorial, entitled ‘Labor Perspective. Access to the job market for migrant individuals.’
She also criticized the urgent need of the Canarian government for unaccompanied migrant minors to "leave" the archipelago because they "do not want them there."
"The Canarian government has an urgent need for them to leave there, they don’t want them there, they want them to go to the Peninsula," she said, while criticizing that the Supreme Court ruling "ignores" the condition of minors of these boys and girls.
"THE MINOR IS ABOVE ALL A MINOR"
"The minor is above all a minor. When we talk about protecting the interests of the minor, they are minors. Then the circumstance of whether they are asylum seekers, seeking international protection, etc., is something that comes later. But the initial circumstance that defines them as objects of protection by the legal system and the system is the minor condition. This is ignored by the ruling," stated the Secretary of State for Migrations.
In any case, Cancela indicated that they will "comply with the ruling" of the Supreme Court, transferring asylum-seeking minors to the Peninsula, "to some of the centers in the best possible conditions," because they have "no other option," although she insisted that "the normal thing would be to wait" for the Derivation of Minors Royal Decree-Law to come into effect, referring to those who are not seeking international protection, because then "the overcrowding that the Supreme Court talks about will cease to exist."