Migrants in Canary Islands say camps are unfit

While Spain has criticised Europe for not sharing responsibilities on migration, the country is finding itself under fire from migrants, local officials and human rights groups on the Canary Islands, where thousands who made hazardous sea crossings from Africa say they are stuck in inadequate camps.

More than 23,000 people from Morocco and West Africa arrived on the resort archipelago in the past year as authorities cracked down on previously popular routes on the Mediterranean. Spain has sought to keep what it sees as economic migrants, mainly from Morocco and Senegal, from continuing their journeys on to the mainland, stopping them from boarding planes and ferries while transferring potential asylum seekers and the most vulnerable, from other countries, such as Mali.

When existing reception centres on the islands filled up, the government put up to 8,000 people in tourist hotels left empty by the coronavirus pandemic and built six large temporary camps to house 6,300. The largest of these on Tenerife is Las Raices, located in San Cristobal de La Laguna, at the foot of a mountain on the volcanic island. Built with European Union funds, it can hold up to 2,400 in its rows of white tents.

Problems have plagued the camp since it opened, with complaints that it is cold and crowded, lacks adequate hot water and serves inedible food. Police detained several residents this month amid tensions over food. Some have decided to leave the camp to sleep in shacks in a nearby forest. Papa Seck, a Senegalese fisherman who was transferred to the camp a month ago, fled his hometown of Joal-Fadiouth in October because he could no longer make a living due to overfished waters.

"The ocean is dead. We have nothing left," the 30-year-old told The Associated Press, adding that he sold many of his possessions - including his pirogue, or long canoe to seek a new life in Spain.

His two-week crossing was arduous, he said, and several of the 140 passengers died of thirst and hunger before landing on the island of El Hierro in the Canaries. Some 23,000 arrived in the islands in 2020, up 750% from the year before, and at least 849 people died or disappeared on the way, according to the UN migration agency. The Atlantic route regained popularity after North African countries stepped up border controls and interceptions in the Mediterranean with support from the EU.

When Seck and those with him landed, they were tested for the coronavirus and quarantined before being moved to reception centres or hotels, and then to Las Raices. While nothing compares to their dangerous crossing, Seck said life in the camp has been difficult and he is frustrated he cannot continue on to continental Europe. The camp's larger tents can hold up to 64 people but are divided into smaller sections, according to Accem, a nongovernmental organisation contracted by the government to run the facility.

The camp's occupancy is at just over 50% of its maximum capacity, the group said. Even with the subdivisions, Seck describes "twenty-four people in a tent," calling it "horrible." But it's expected that more people are to be moved into the camp, meaning it won't be long until it is filled up. José Luis Escrivá, Spain's Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, said more than 1,000 migrants who are still in island hotels will move to the camps by the end of this month.

For many in Las Raíces, it is hard to imagine what more people will mean, especially with already hour-long waits at dawn for the showers. The migrants said the warm water quickly turns cold. Accem acknowledged that one of two water heaters in the camp was broken and was being repaired. Food was the biggest complaint. The Accem NGO admitted  "the quality and quantity of the food provided needs improving," and has told the government ministry. But Escrivá vehemently denied that living conditions at the new camps were poor and rejected allegations the food was inadequate.

"That is false, simply false," he told lawmakers recently at a hearing on his management of migrants in the Canaries.

Dozens of young men mostly from Morocco have moved to the outskirts of Las Raíces, building makeshift shelters of tree branches, cardboard and plastic. Roberto Mesa, a member of a migrant support group in Tenerife, criticised Spain's decision to hold them on the islands, saying they are kept out of sight of the rest of the population. "These people are not going to leave the Canary Islands (for Europe) and these macro-centres have been prepared... because these places are not very visible to the population," said Mesa, whose group provides migrants with food, clothes and other services, including legal help for those seeking asylum and Spanish lessons.

Escrivá, the migration minister, questioned the migrants' decision to sleep in the streets rather than the camp, saying they were "induced by certain organisations to put up a show," amid heightened expectations of a better life in Europe, when many of them faced a return to their homelands.

Spain has bilateral agreements with African nations to eventually return migrants to their countries of origin or those they passed through. Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus have pressed for the new European Migration and Asylum Pact to force other EU members to establish an equitable relocation system and a centralized return mechanism. For Seck, a return to Senegal is not an option. "We prefer to die rather than return," he said. 

Image Credits: AP