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You are sitting next to the harbor wall, without shelter or protection from the scorching sun: more than 2,188 refugees arrived in the Canary Islands just last weekend.
The island authorities are overwhelmed. Around 2000 refugees had to spend the week at the dock in the port of Arguineguín in Gran Canaria. Authorities and aid 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 the human dignity and fundamental rights of the refugees, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Conditions are “pretty dire”. People demonstrably infected with Covid-19 would have had to live with the other refugees while awaiting the transfer, without the possibility of isolating themselves.
Locals fear that the makeshift camp at the port could become a permanent solution. “We cannot allow the Canary Islands to become a second Lampedusa or Lesbos for migrants,” says Román Rodríguez, vice president of the Canary Islands.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska announced that migrants no longer have to stay at the port wall. A barracks will serve as an initial reception center in the future, where they will be searched and tested for Corona. The first images of the barracks near Las Palmas in Gran Canaria show 23 olive green military tents with folding beds. 800 people should find space here.
The route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the longest and deadliest in Europe. More than 600 people died this year in the one-day journey. Some of the migrants leave 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 engine problems can prevent men, women and children from surviving the trip.
More and more people have been using the route since late 2019, mainly because the Moroccan authorities, with Spanish help, are blocking the much shorter and safer route through the Strait of Gibraltar. More than 15,000 migrants have already arrived this year, 5,000 in October alone, including many people from the Maghreb, where the pandemic has destroyed the economy.
Many more refugees arrived in 2006
The Spanish authorities are contributing to the island’s need. The Interior Minister, Grande-Marlaska, wants to close the Canarian route again and, therefore, hardly takes people to the peninsula. Apparently he fears that this will encourage more migrants to cross. The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has criticized it for months and warns of “prison islands”.
At the same time, the Spanish ministries failed to coordinate with each other quickly enough. It has been clear for months that more and more refugees are arriving in the Canary Islands, but now there is a lack of accommodation.
The government only announced emergency measures on Friday, but almost all of them were already known: the reception camps in the Canary Islands will be expanded. In addition, the government is planning more deportations and cooperation with countries of origin and transit so that fewer migrants arrive on the islands.
Arguineguín Pier: no shelter, hardly any protection from the sun
Photo: Manuel Navarro / dpa
After 2006, when 31,000 people arrived in a 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. The migrants have been deported to Mauritania again since Tuesday. Spain has a return agreement with the transit state, but flights were recently suspended due to the corona pandemic.
NGOs repeatedly criticize the fact that the Mauritanian authorities abandon Malian refugees on the border with Mali and that they have no possibility of claiming asylum. Also in the Canary Islands, many refugees report that they cannot access enough information and a lawyer in the chaos. Human Rights Watch speaks of “serious concerns” about whether the right to asylum is being respected.
