El Hierro, a Canary Island with barely 12,000 inhabitants, has received—according to the insular Cabildo—4,500 people during the first seven days of November. The pressure on healthcare and reception services has become unbearable, leading the President of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, to request an urgent meeting with the Sánchez Government, which will take place today at La Moncloa. Regional President Fernando Clavijo—who revealed yesterday that his prior warnings had been dismissed as “alarmist”—will attend today’s Interministerial Committee on Immigration, believing the meeting must yield concrete commitments regarding healthcare reinforcement, reception capacity, and transfers to the mainland. In addition, he is calling for an “urgent” diplomatic initiative in the countries of origin “to manage the failure of previous policies” in this domain.
Furthermore, the Spanish Government is being asked to request the inclusion of the Canary Islands in the solidarity mechanism provided under the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, as well as to demand the deployment of resources from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).
Likewise, Clavijo indicated that a modification to Article 23 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary is being requested to prevent “legal loopholes” that currently hinder the prosecution of individuals “who commit misdeeds and murders on the high seas.”
