The Government will concentrate the new distribution of immigrants who have arrived in the Canary Islands aboard cayucos in recent weeks in three communities. Specifically, the accommodation of around 3.750 personas in prefabricated facilities and provisional camps located on military lands in the Carabanchel district of the capital and the town of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Cartagena (Region of Murcia) and Mérida (Extremadura).
The announcement was made this Tuesday by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, in the information meeting of at least four hours that he held by videoconference with representatives of the main cities, the president of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (EMFF), María José Pelayoand with the counselors with powers in social policies to address this unprecedented crisis since 2006. In the month of October alone, more than 13,000 arrivals have been recorded on the coasts of the archipelago.
The forecast is that Madrid will welcome 1,220 immigrants at the Arteaga General Headquarters in Carabanchel next week and another 1,134 at the Primo de Rivera Barracks in Alcalá de Henares within two weeks. The president of the community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has accused the Government of turning the Canary Islands “into a corridor for the mafias” that profit from migration, which, she has warned, know that “the season is open in Spain.”
In addition, another 800 people are going to be referred to an unspecified center in Mérida, the first phase of which is already underway, and 600 more to the old Naval Hospital in Cartagena starting next Monday. In the Ministry of Inclusion they specified that “the search and conditioning work for new spaces continues” in collaboration with Defense that “shortly will result in new available places.”
The urgency of the municipalities and autonomies that this Tuesday expressed their concern in the video conference with Escrivá is justified mainly by the constant trickle of boats that arrive, day after day, to the Canary coasts. Yesterday there were 212 immigrants rescued in two cayucos, all near the island of El Hierro, all in good health after having spent about 10 days at sea before being towed to the port of La Restinga.