The Coalición Canaria-Primero Canarias candidate for the Congress of Deputies, Cristina Valido, has said that the massive arrival of boats carrying migrants to the island of El Hierro is generating “desperation and exhaustion” among the residents of El Hierro. For that reason, she has called for “immediate actions” to result from the meeting with the Government, and for all the information handled by intelligence services about the movements of migratory flows between Africa and the Canary Islands to be made available.
In an interview with 'Telecinco', reported by Europa Press, she insisted that the situation had already been warned about in advance: “We know what happens at this time of year, because we have lived it in other moments.”
Since October 1, more than 8,000 immigrants coming from Africa in rubber boats (cayucos) have arrived at an island with around 12,000 inhabitants, a scenario that Valido considers “desperating” when she checks how human tragedies of this magnitude take so long to be placed at the center of the political agenda. She recalled that she herself warned of the migration pressure that was coming, and that the situation the population is forced to endure is not acceptable.
Meeting with the Government and demand for answers
The Canary Islands candidate has said that she trusts that the meeting with the central Executive will lead to “immediate actions” and not mere “promises in the medium or long term”.
“We want answers that make it possible to restore a certain normality to El Hierro and to its people, clear commitments in funding, in human resources, in material resources at sea and on land,” she stressed.
Lastly, Valido asserted the right of Canarian citizens to be informed: “We have the right to have all the information that the intelligence services of the Spanish State have regarding the movements of migratory flows between Africa and the Canary Islands,” she concluded.