The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has advanced this Tuesday that he will demand greater involvement from the Community institutions in the face of the upturn in the arrival of migrants to the Canary Islands, with special incidence on the island of El Hierro. He has stressed that an orchestrated response from the Twenty-Seven is essential, noting that the archipelago is also an “external border” of the European Union.
“I’m going to speak with the European commissioners in charge of cooperation policy, African policy and the Mediterranean in order to address the situation at this time of arrival of migration to the island of El Hierro,” the head of Spanish diplomacy has indicated in statements to the media from Brussels, a city to which he has traveled after attending the Council of Ministers.
Albares has reiterated that one of the central purposes of his trip to the Community capital is to ensure that the European Commission and those responsible for cooperation with Africa “get decisively involved and continue working together with Spain”. He has again emphasized that the Canary Islands are “also an external border of the European Union, besides being an extremely important territory for Spain”.
In this context, the minister will meet this Wednesday with the commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, and with the commissioner for International Partnerships, Josef Síkela, to whom they will convey “first-hand information” about the increase in migratory pressure on the islands. On this occasion, no meeting is planned with the Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, as he has specified.
Albares has added that the Government maintains constant dialogue with the main countries of origin and transit along the route to the Canary Islands, especially Senegal and Gambia. In recent days, he has spoken on several occasions with his counterparts in Foreign Affairs to analyze the increase in departures and arrivals.
“All of them are priority countries for Spanish cooperation. There is also a strong presence of European Union cooperation, and that is why I am going to speak with the commissioner in charge of that,” he said, likewise warning about migratory pressure coming from the Sahel, especially from countries such as Mali and Niger.
The political situation in Senegal and Gambia
Asked about the reasons for the migration surge and the scope of cooperation with countries of origin, the minister has defended the strength of Spain’s relations with Senegal and has linked part of the increase in arrivals to internal political factors that are conditioning the ability of local authorities to exercise control, citing in particular the Youth Olympic Games.
The head of Foreign Affairs has reiterated that "Africa is a challenge for all Europe" because the income gap feeds a migration pressure that "is suffered first of all" by the countries of the Sahel and other areas of the continent, including the Canary Islands. For this reason, he has urged to "resolve this situation as soon as possible".