One in four migrants transferred from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula after the migratory surge registered during the islands will be welcomed in Andalusia, according to data to which EL PAÍS has had access. Of a total of more than 8,700 places that are expected to open in the Peninsula until December 10, more than 2,200 are located in this autonomous community, the most populated in Spain. The calculation, in any case, varies every day depending on the spaces and derivations are organized. This figure does not include the beds that can be installed in the four disused barracks that Defense has given up in the face of the emergency and which, in principle, should accommodate around 3,000 people. The number of people who can be accommodated in military properties is not fixed, but according to EL PAÍS, two of these lands are in the Community of Madrid, which will end up being one of the main destinations for referrals from the islands. The other two are located in Seville and Cartagena (Murcia). All of these places are added to the 4,500 in the humanitarian care network that were already available on the Peninsula before the emergency declared in the Canary Islands.
After Andalusia, the main receiving autonomy will be Catalonia, with one in five migrants transferred (about 1,685), followed by the Valencian Community (18%, about 1,575 migrants) and Extremadura (1,024). By province, the one that will receive the most migrants will be Valencia, with about 880, followed by Almería (about 850), Badajoz (about 845), Barcelona (about 835), Girona (about 770), Málaga (about 465), Alicante (about 450), Madrid (about 425) and Cádiz (about 400). Castellón, Granada, Huesca, Murcia, Pontevedra and Valladolid will receive less than 400 and more than 200. The migrants will be housed mainly in hotels, hostels, shelters, reception centers or camps.
The Canary archipelago is experiencing an unprecedented surge in arrivals. So far this year, around 29,000 landings have already been recorded, half of them in this month of October. The islands’ reception network has been reinforced since the last migratory peak (2020-2021), but it is insufficient for the current rate of entries. For this reason, the acting Government has decided to transfer the new arrivals to the Peninsula and offer basic humanitarian reception throughout the territory. The commitment to the Canarian autonomous community, according to the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, is that there are no more than 6,000 people welcomed in the archipelago.
The diversions, although they have been evident for weeks and thousands of migrants are being transferred, are an issue that the Executive has not wanted to publicize. The number of transfers is not public, nor is the number of accommodation places that are opening up on the Peninsula. On the one hand, because these are data that vary every day, but on the other because the internal mandate between ministries is that this issue be treated with discretion. The PP’s criticism of these transfers and the lack of information about them have ended up putting the focus on a strategy that is followed in other entry countries with peripheral territories, such as the island of Lampedusa, in Italy.
The discretion in this matter is also explained because the Ministry of the Interior is not in favor of facilitating transit from the islands to the mainland, much less advertising it. He believes that it makes the route more attractive, a criterion shared by security forces. But the strategy of keeping migrants and refugees in the Canary Islands was already tested in 2020 and 2021 and resulted in overcrowding in camps, enormous social unrest and racist outbreaks and violence against foreigners. The Canarian Government, led by the Canarian Coalition and the Popular Party, is in favor of the bypass strategy to relieve pressure on the islands.
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