NGOs specialized in migration and childhood have requested that the «specific response» given to unaccompanied migrant minors in the Canary Islands, where the system is «overloaded», ensures the guarantee of their rights and individual and specialized care in childhood. This is the statement made after the Supreme Court gave the government ten days to guarantee access to the National Reception System for International Protection for about a thousand unaccompanied migrant minors who have applied for asylum.
For CEAR, «the priority» is to provide «a specific response» to minors in the Canary Islands, «trying to ensure the guarantee of their rights» and «their well-being».
«From CEAR, we have insisted throughout this time on the need to attend in the best conditions of dignity, guarantee of rights, and legality to unaccompanied migrant minors in a system like the one in the Canary Islands that is overloaded, a system that today, in quantitative terms, hinders working properly and guaranteeing the rights of unaccompanied minors,» highlighted the territorial coordinator of CEAR in the Canary Islands, Juan Carlos Lorenzo, in statements to Europa Press.
In this context, CEAR believes that this Supreme Court ruling along with the royal decree law approved by the government «indicate new alternatives that will need to be developed, analyzed carefully to see what impact – positive obviously – it has on unaccompanied migrant minors in the Canary Islands.»
Furthermore, within its scope, CEAR shows its «willingness to collaborate» with all Public Administrations «to address the situations that may arise from these new alternatives» that, in their opinion, «aim to provide dignity and legality to the situation of unaccompanied foreign minors.»
On the other hand, UNICEF Spain considers that this ruling arises from «articulating extraordinary measures» in a situation «of emergency» as the current one «which is affecting the unaccompanied minors in the Canary Islands and Ceuta a lot» and believes it is an opportunity to insist that the situation is «unsustainable» and that «the State as a whole has to find urgent solutions.»
«What we have seen is that the application of this interim measure requires, from our point of view, the creation of safe and protective environments with professionals specialized in childhood and properly trained, ensuring an individual assessment of the best interest,» emphasized the migration specialist from UNICEF Spain, Sara Collantes.
They also consider it «fundamental» to ensure «interinstitutional coordination» between «the reception system, international protection, and the autonomous protection system and the prosecutors»; and the collaboration of entities specialized in childhood to respond adequately to the emergency, «in the style that was done in response to Ukraine» when there was coordination, mapping, and pooling of resources.
STATE UNIT FOR SUPPORT TO MIGRANT CHILDHOOD IN EMERGENCY
Furthermore, UNICEF Spain has advocated for the creation of «a state unit to support migrant childhood in emergency» that they are trying to present to the different authorities. «We have been asking for this already, which is why it seems particularly important to us in this context,» Collantes emphasized.
Specifically, they propose a specialized unit that can, in a mobile way, «reinforce» the frontline entities in this task that they have to carry out, following the principles of childhood.
In any case, beyond the «emergency context» that requires «extraordinary responses,» UNICEF also calls not to lose sight of the fact that it is necessary to «have autonomous childhood protection systems that are capable of responding to the challenges of migratory conditions from quality and interterritorial solidarity.»
Meanwhile, the migration specialist at Save the Children, Bárbara González, indicated that, on the one hand, they understand the «efforts» that the Government of the Canary Islands is making to «try to unblock» the current situation of «saturation» within its protection system, also trying to be «creative» in finding viable solutions for the referral of these children throughout Spanish territory.
CONCERN ABOUT THE «COMPETENCE CHANGE»
However, they consider that «the legal framework» and even «the practical application of that does not support the Supreme Court’s decision to make a competence change.»
«In the asylum law, it is clearly established that the competence in matters of unaccompanied migrant minors seeking asylum lies with the minors’ protection system, not with the international protection system. Therefore, we do not understand the decision made by the Supreme Court, and furthermore, we are concerned about its practical application,» González pointed out.
In this sense, she indicated that «the National Asylum System has centers for adults and families, but it does not have centers for unaccompanied minors» and that the staff is not «specialized in childhood.»
Therefore, they are concerned about how it will be carried out and remind that «the rights as minors always have to take precedence over their status as foreign individuals.» «The framework of action has to be that of minors’ protection. Then, of course, there has to be collaboration for asylum seekers between the minors’ protection system and the asylum system,» she pointed out.
In this context, Save The Children warns that «the solution is not to ignore their status as minors» but to provide «more resources» and «speed up the procedures for unaccompanied children in the Canary Islands.»