“On migrants, Madrid abandoned us”: Canary Islands government threatens legal action

Brussels – The government of the Canary Islands could take Madrid to court. The Spanish executive allegedly “abandoned” the archipelago to the migration crisis without adequately supporting it. Irregular entries are also increasing in Ceuta, the autonomous town on the Strait of Gibraltar. While the government is trying to run for cover by signing agreements with the countries of origin and transit of migrants, the situation is becoming politically hot, to the point of creating rifts not only between the centre-left majority and the oppositions but also within the two opposing camps.

On Monday (Sept. 2), the president of the Canary Islands government (and leader of the centre-right Coalición Canaria party), Fernando Clavijo, announced that his executive is planning to launch legal action against the Spanish state because, in his words, it is “neglecting its functions,” “abandoning” the autonomous community to manage alone the growing numbers of migrants landing in the archipelago. And so, the governor envisaged opening a “legal debate” with Madrid to prevent “the emergency from becoming the norm.”

Canary Island facilities, Clavijo pointed out, have so far provided care and treatment for both the elderly and unaccompanied minors who have landed on the archipelago. However, they may soon be unable to provide adequate protection for migrants who have not yet reached the age of majority, which is already a difficult problem to manage. Among other things, the community’s president also complained about the lack of economic aid (which Madrid promised, according to Clavijo), starting with the repayment of some €150 million already given by the Canary Islands government to manage what should not be its responsibility. According to estimates by local organisations, something like 75 thousand migrants could attempt the Atlantic route (precisely through the Canary Islands) between next September and October alone. In 2024, arrivals totalled around 12,500, and there are currently about 6 thousand unaccompanied minors on the seven Spanish islands.

A new meeting with Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is expected on Sept. 9, while tomorrow (Sept. 4) Clavijo will travel to Ceuta, the Spanish exclave opposite Gibraltar that, along with the Atlantic archipelago, is the territory under the greatest migratory pressure at this time. According to data provided by the autonomous city’s government, entries of irregular migrants into Ceuta have increased sixfold over last year, with facilities for the reception of unaccompanied minors reportedly operating at a capacity of 360 per cent.

Madrid’s strategy, for now, is to sign agreements with the African countries of origin and transit of the flows, following the practice of externalising borders that is now well established in Europe and has been applied on the diverse shores of the Mediterranean from Libya to Albania, from Tunisia to Turkey. Sánchez paid an official visit to Mauritania, Gambia, and Senegal last week, where he signed as many pacts to promote so-called circular migration (i.e., bilaterally recognised economic migration schemes between two countries) through legal and safe routes.

The problem, according to Clavijo, is primarily political.

The Canarian governor pointed his finger at the Partido Popular (PP), the main opposition party representing the centre-right conservatives,  guilty of scuttling a legislative proposal advanced jointly by the Coalición Canaria, Sánchez’s PSOE, and Sumar’s radical left. Since then, Clavijo lamented, the entire country has been waiting for a response from the PP (which, moreover, is part of the tripartite coalition that governs in the Canary Islands) that, however, has been slow to arrive.

During a vote in Congress last July 23, the government lost 171 to 177 and failed to approve an amendment to the Ley de Extranjería that would have established a binding mechanism for the redistribution of unaccompanied migrant minors among Spain’s autonomous communities, intending to relieve pressure on the areas most affected by the flows such as precisely the Canary Islands and Ceuta. Sánchez’s majority lacked the crucial votes of the Catalan independence-minded Junts, who refused to support the amendment so as not to “continue to saturate Catalonia” with migrants.

However, the political dimension of the clash over migration is transversal and does not only trace the divisions between government and opposition. On the majority side, in addition to the defection of Junts, PM Sánchez is also suffering friendly fire from partners to his left for his statements about the need to repatriate irregular migrants. An “extraordinarily worrying” approach, in the words of Sumar’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Duval, who lamented not only the radicalisation of the conservatives’ positions but also “that PSOE has decided to follow this path.” “Copying the recipe of the right and the far right only benefits them,” said Duval.

But there have been some frictions even in the right-wing camp, which includes the PP, the more radical Vox, and Se acabó la fiesta (SALF). In July, for example, several regional governments governed by the PP-Vox coalition entered a crisis because the conservatives decided to take in and redistribute among the various autonomous communities 400 unaccompanied minors who had landed precisely in the Canary Islands. However, for Clavijo, who governs the archipelago with the PP, migration “is not a political or territorial issue” but “a humanitarian drama to which Europe and Spain must respond.” The Canarian governor called the Spanish far right “petty” and “miserable” for its attempts to gain electoral advantage “from the death, hunger, and misery of children.”