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You are sitting by the harbor wall, with no shelter or protection from the scorching sun: more than 2,188 refugees arrived in the Canary Islands last weekend alone.
The authorities of the islands are overwhelmed. About 2,000 refugees had to spend the week on the quay in the port of Arguineguín in Gran Canaria. The authorities and humanitarian organizations have set up a makeshift camp there that can only accommodate 500 people. Some Spanish media write about the “pier of shame”.
The conditions did not respect human dignity or the fundamental rights of refugees, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. Conditions are “pretty dire”. People demonstrably infected with Covid-19 would have had to live with other refugees awaiting transfer, without the possibility of isolating themselves.
Locals fear that the makeshift harbor camp could become a permanent solution. “We must not allow the Canaries to turn into a second Lampedusa or Lesbos for migrants,” says Román Rodríguez, vice president of the Canaries.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has announced that migrants must no longer remain at the harbor wall. A barracks will serve in the future as a first reception center, where they will be registered and tested for Corona. The first images from the barracks near Las Palmas in Gran Canaria show 23 olive green military tents with camp beds. 800 people should find space here.
The route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the longest and deadliest to Europe. More than 600 people died during the one-day crossing this year. Some of the migrants start in Senegal, from there it is 1600 kilometers to the Canary Islands. Other migrants leave Western Sahara or Morocco. Even a small miscalculation in the water supply or problems with the engine can mean that men, women and children do not survive the journey.
Since the end of 2019, more and more people have used the route, mainly because Moroccan authorities are blocking the much shorter and safer route through the Strait of Gibraltar with Spanish help. More than 15,000 migrants have already arrived this year, of which 5,000 in October alone, including many from the Maghreb, where the pandemic destroyed the economy.
In 2006, many more refugees arrived
The Spanish authorities are contributing to the island’s need. Interior Minister Grande-Marlaska wants to close the Canary Islands route again and therefore hardly brings people to the mainland. He apparently fears this will encourage more migrants to cross. The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has been criticizing him for months and warning against “prison islands”.
At the same time, the Spanish ministries failed to coordinate with each other quickly enough. For months it has been clear that more and more refugees are arriving in the Canary Islands, but now there is a lack of accommodation.
The government announced emergency measures only on Friday, but almost all of them were already known: the reception camps in the Canary Islands will be expanded. Furthermore, the government is planning more deportations and cooperation with countries of origin and transit so that fewer migrants arrive on the islands.
Arguineguín quay: no shelter, almost no protection from the sun
Photo: Manuel Navarro / dpa
After 2006, when 31,000 people arrived in one year, the Spanish authorities had already managed to reduce the number again. As in 2006, Frontex officials have now come to the Canary Islands to help. Since Tuesday, the migrants have been deported again to Mauritania. Spain has a withdrawal agreement with the transit state, but flights have recently been suspended due to the corona pandemic.
NGOs repeatedly criticize the fact that Malian refugees are abandoned by the Mauritanian authorities on the border with Mali and that they have no chance to seek asylum. In the Canary Islands too, many refugees report that they cannot access sufficient information and a lawyer in the chaos. Human Rights Watch speaks of “serious concerns” about respect for the right to asylum.
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