The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, hopes to receive a response from the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, between today and tomorrow to the letter in which he demanded urgent actions in response to the increase in migrant arrivals to the islands. At the same time, he has warned that the situation in El Hierro "is dramatic" and that the conditions in the Temporary Attention Center for Foreigners (CATE) are "very undesirable".
Clavijo made these statements on Monday morning, before participating in the presentation at the Torre Bat in Bilbao of the Future Government Center, a project by the Japanese multinational NTT DATA "conceived as a reference space for analysis, innovation, and collaboration around the future of public management", which has the closure of the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López.
The regional leader has reported that his Executive had been trying for months, without success, for the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to convene the Security Board in the Canary Islands to examine the migratory increase, a phenomenon that his Government had already "warned months ago was going to happen with the application of the new European Union Asylum Migration Pact that came into force on June 12, along with the fact that always at the end of the year" in the archipelago there is "what is called the calm sea and the navigation conditions are much more favorable".
According to him, Marlaska "has not wanted to convene or gather the Security Board" and, given the scenario recorded in October, when it is "above 180% of the arrivals of last year, even surpassing a number and in quantity to the year 2024, which was the year with the most migration that arrived" at the Canary coasts, he decided to send a letter to Pedro Sánchez with "five issues that are quite reasonable".
Firstly, he demands the meeting of the Security Board "to see the information that is available" and has denounced that "we find out through the media that the National Intelligence Center had already warned of the migratory increase in the Canary Islands".
El Hierro and the requests for reinforcement
Secondly, he has demanded that "means and coordination be established with the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands to be able to assist the migrants". He has emphasized that "the situation in El Hierro is dramatic. Even at this moment, the conditions in the CATE (Temporary Attention Center for Foreigners) are very undesirable".
Likewise, he has requested that the Canary Islands be incorporated into the Frontex device, that "a great diplomatic deployment be promoted through the countries" of origin of the people arriving by boat and, as a fifth measure, the holding of a weekly meeting between the Governments of Spain and the Canary Islands to improve coordination. "I hope that the request will be addressed and that we have some communication from the Government of Spain, and let's see if we can get a response today or tomorrow," he pointed out.
This Monday, Fernando Clavijo participates in Bilbao in an institutional dialogue titled 'Public transformation in the era of AI: priorities, advances, and challenges of the autonomous governments', moderated by the executive director of the Future Government Center, Paloma Baena, and in which the Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, and the president of the Junta of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, also participate.