Spain has begun the process of relocating hundreds of asylum-seeking children who have been living on the Canary Islands to the mainland amid a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment led by the far right.
Just over 1,000 children, mainly from Mali, have been at the centre of a legal wrangle between Madrid and the Canary Island government in recent months over who should be responsible for them.
They are among the many Africans who have made the dangerous crossing by boat to the Canary Islands, which has become one of the main routes from Africa to Europe.
In March, the Spanish supreme court ruled that the central government was accountable for their wellbeing. After a series of logistical delays, that order is finally being implemented.
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“Justice is being done for these unaccompanied boys, girls and teenagers and for [the Canary Islands], which have been exclusively burdened with all the weight of this humanitarian drama,” wrote Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Island government, on social media, in advance of the first transfer of children to the mainland.
Ten children – nine Malians and one Senegalese – were due to leave the Canary Islands on Monday, although their exact destination was unclear. The central government plans to transfer groups of up to 40 per week in the future and find homes for them with local charity organisations.
Mr Clavijo has been demanding greater support from the central government of socialist Pedro Sánchez and from the country’s other 16 regional governments to manage the situation regarding unaccompanied minors and adult migrants.
As well as the asylum seekers, there are another estimated 4,000 or so migrant children who have been living on the Canary Islands.
[ Violent clashes break out between far-right groups and migrants in Spanish townOpens in new window ]
As minors, their legal status is more complex than that of adult arrivals and they cannot be repatriated.
Total migrant arrivals by boat to the Canary Islands this year reached 11,575 as of July 31st. Although that number is almost 50 per cent lower than the equivalent last year, as the Balearic Islands becomes an increasingly common alternative destination for migrants. Mr Clavijo has warned that local services are struggling to manage.
The process of transferring the remaining migrant children is also due to get under way in September, following congress approval earlier this year of a new mechanism to manage them. The tight vote, which saw conservatives and the far right oppose the procedure, reflected how immigration has been pushed to the centre of the Spanish political arena.
The conservative People’s Party (PP) recently closed down a migrant centre in Pozuelo, near Madrid, where 400 minors were due to be taken in. The minister for territorial policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, accused the PP of putting up “obstacles to the taking in of minors, those who are black”.
Last month, the far-right Vox party called for the deportation of millions of migrants “who have not adapted to our customs”. The party’s leader, Santiago Abascal, said unaccompanied migrant minors should be among the deportees.
A broader debate about tolerance of cultures and religions has arisen more recently, after the PP – at the instigation of Vox – introduced in the southern town of Jumilla a norm preventing religious festivals from being celebrated in local sports halls.
The move was seen as being aimed specifically at the town’s Muslim community, which had been holding two annual events in a local sports venue. The PP’s mayor of Jumilla, Seve González, said it was important to “defend our identity and protect the [Catholic] values and religious expressions of our country”.
The left-wing central government and the country’s Catholic Church have criticised the initiative, with the latter describing it as “a discrimination which cannot be allowed in democratic society”.
