The Government will enable 2 accommodations in Carabanchel and Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) to accommodate migrants from the Canary Islands

MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government will enable two accommodations in Carabanchel and Alcalá de Henares, in Madrid, to accommodate migrants from the Canary Islands, as sources from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration have confirmed to Europa Press. Thus, camps will be set up on Defense land located in the General Arteaga barracks of the Army and in Alcalá de Henares.

These same sources have specified that these places are enabled within the contingency plan to address the humanitarian emergency in the Canary Islands and add that places are being opened in hotels and shelters throughout the territory, such as in Mérida.

The objective is to decongest the reception network of the Canary Islands, where more than 23,000 people have arrived so far this year, 80 percent more than in 2022.

The acting Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, described this Wednesday as "absolute falsehood" and "intolerable insult" to NGOs the statements of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in the who has criticized the lack of information from the central government about the "more than possible" arrival of migrants to the Peninsula, from the Canary Islands.

"For a change we have not been informed of anything at all. At least until now, no one from the Government has contacted us to date," said the 'popular' leader on Monday, asked by journalists after the inauguration of the new judicial headquarters of Valdemoro.

Ayuso added that migrants "cannot be treated like bundles that are sent and left around the Peninsula." "The Government is not responsible for anything. It does not tell the autonomous communities how many people there are or how we are going to care for them," he assured.

After these statements, José Luis Escrivá responded to Díaz Ayuso. "'Immigrants cannot be treated as burdens that are left around the Peninsula,' according to Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Beyond its absolute falsehood, it is an intolerable insult for the NGOs that, collaborating with the Ministry of Inclusion, Security Social and Migration, they do an exceptional job in welcoming immigrants," the minister said this Wednesday, in a comment published in X, collected by Europa Press.

In recent days, different regional executives and city councils governed by the Popular Party (PP) have complained about the policy carried out by the Government of Pedro Sánchez in the transfer of migrants from the Canary Islands, demanding greater coordination and information from regional administrations and local.

One of the first to come out publicly to criticize this Government policy was precisely Díaz Ayuso. Furthermore, from 'Génova', his spokesperson, Borja Sémper, has demanded that Sánchez's Executive inform the autonomous communities, while demanding that they not be treated as "packages."

Precisely, the Ministry of the Interior has transferred 321 migrants to Almería this Tuesday, who have been rescued in recent days in Atlantic waters when they were trying to arrive in the Canary Islands by cayuco.

As a result of this, the mayor of Almería, the 'popular' María del Mar Vázquez, has expressed her "understanding" of the "current situation" that the Canary Islands are experiencing, but has reproached the Government for its "institutional disloyalty" for "not "have counted" on the city council for the transfer to the capital of Almeria of these more than 320 people.

For his part, the spokesperson for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, has criticized the "very poor migration planning" that, in his opinion, the central Executive has been deploying, acting in a "unilateral" manner and "without cooperation" with the autonomous communities.

Likewise, the city of Cáceres welcomes 40 migrants from the Canary Islands who arrived in the city last Friday and who are being cared for by the social services of the city council and by the NGO Accem, in charge of coordinating care for migrants who arrive in the city.

Given this, the Government of Extremadura has asked the Government of Spain for "coordination" and has criticized that it knew one day in advance that 180 new migrants would arrive in the region this Tuesday.

On Monday, 195 migrants also arrived in the province of Huesca, according to figures from the Government of Aragon, which complained of "institutional disloyalty" by the Executive, something that the Government delegate in the region, Fernando Beltrán, denied.

Beltrán, who does not rule out more transfers to the region, stated that the migratory flow towards the Canary archipelago is "out of the ordinary" so a system has been put in place to relocate all these people to the peninsula. According to him, for this the Ministry of Inclusion arranges services with third sector entities, such as APIP-ACAM, the Consortium of Entities for Comprehensive Action with Migrants (CEPAIM), ACCEM or the Red Cross, which have the capacity to activate housing resources or meet food or clothing needs.