In the centers for migrant minors in the Canary Islands “it is impossible to protect the rights of the minor” and for them to be cared for “with the dignity they deserve.” This has been stated on several occasions by the regional president himself, Fernando Clavijo. The conditions under which children and adolescents are welcomed in the Archipelago’s resource network have been questioned by entities, workers and users. Even so, the Ministry of Social Welfare has only carried out 28 inspections in the last five years, according to data obtained by Canarias Ahora through the Transparency Portal.
The information comes from the Center Inspection and Registration Service of the Vice-Ministry of Social Welfare, the department in charge of “the inspection and control of services, functional homes and child care centers” of the Islands. According to that resolution, in 2020 only two actions were carried out, in 2021 there were a total of six, in 2022 only two, in 2023, four and in 2024, until December 10 of that year, they had been carried out 14 visits.
The data reveals that Gran Canaria is the island with the most inspections, with 22. In Lanzarote there have only been three, all of them on the same day, too. And in Tenerife also three. Of all the centers visited, only one has repeated: the so-called The Heatherslocated in Santa Brígida, with verifications on August 4, 2020 and September 29, 2024.
The general director of Protection of Children and Families of the regional Executive, Sandra Rodríguez, of the Canarian Coalition (CC), “understands” that these figures refer to the actions included in the agreement between the Vice-Ministry of Social Welfare and the Canarian Police , which “are just one of the inspections that are carried out.” She defends that the Administration carries out “many” more. He says that the technicians from his department visit the centers for migrant minors “regularly”, that “they talk” with them and that “they try to meet their demands.”
Rodríguez points out that “it is complex” to specify the number of inspectors in charge of this work. It explains that the General Directorate for the Protection of Children and Families has a team of nineteen social workers and twenty administrative workers who “act as agents of supervision and establishment of improvements” in the conditions of reception of minors. But he recognizes that these do not function as an “inspection commission,” but rather as a control commission.
The general director adds that at the beginning of last year she launched an operational control tool that works as a kind of device rating system. It indicates that its technicians went to 36 centers and that, based on those visits, they prepared reports with proposals and recommendations for improvement. He adds that this first stage was carried out in collaboration with the European Asylum Agency. From now on, however, it will only be the staff of the Vice-Ministry of Social Welfare who will assume that responsibility.
This control tool highlighted by Rodríguez arrived a few months after the Canary Islands Executive announced that it was working on an external inspection contract to “have information almost daily” about what is happening inside the resources for migrant minors, a total of 86. A few hours earlier, twelve unaccompanied foreign children had reported abuse in a facility in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria managed by the Siglo XXI Social Response Foundation, investigated for embezzlement by the European Prosecutor’s Office. The Vice Minister of the Presidency, Alfonso Cabello, then acknowledged that they did not have “fully supervised” the reception network in the face of the incessant flow of arrivals.
Rodríguez maintains, in any case, that the minors “are constantly supervised”, either by visits from the inspection itself, by health personnel, by the councils, by the technicians of their department or by the Prosecutor’s Office. He has not offered specific data on this “assiduity”, but has stressed that “the centers are not visited only by the inspection and that’s it.” He has also clarified that the external inspection contract mentioned by Cabello is actually the control tool implemented last year.
The center of Hoya Fria
The list of inspections carried out between 2020 and 2024 does not reflect any visits to the controversial Hoya Fría emergency center, in Tenerife. This device was built in facilities designed for pigeon breeding and has housed 300 unaccompanied minors. In July 2024, this newspaper echoed the public complaint from foster youth and former workers who warned about the lack of training of employees as well as the alleged mistreatment suffered by adolescents by some educators.
In relation to the lack of controls in this resource, the general director of Child Protection has responded that “perhaps it has not been carried out by the Ministry’s Inspection Service, but there has been supervision and controls” by the area team. who directs “The Tacoronte VII center (known as Hoya Fría) is managed by the Quorum association and was visited again by the focal points of the DGPIF (General Directorate of Protection of Children and Families) on October 29 of last year,” he underlines. Rodriguez. In addition, it justifies that it has been “inspected and assessed” by experts from the European Asylum Agency and that they have visited it along with NGOs and deputies.
A former worker at this resource affirms that she only witnessed one inspection in the months she was in Hoya Fría and that, in addition, they were notified in advance. “When they came, the boss called us at the office and warned us that they were coming. He also told us not to say certain things,” he adds.
Visits advised
Another employee who worked for five months on a Quorum resource in Tenerife agrees on this point. The educator, who prefers not to reveal his name, has told this newspaper that some minors suffered humiliation “of all kinds.” “In the end there are some very subtle ones, like laughing at their clothes, their religion, their beliefs… In reality, it is related to the fact that the people who work there are not trained to work with these people.” [menores migrantes]. The normal thing is that they are former nightclub bouncers,” he says. The only inspection he experienced was “occupational risk inspection.” “He didn’t comply either. The fire extinguishers were lying on the ground, there was no first aid kit or emergency exits,” he recalls.
“The inspections are notified. So they are a paripé,” acknowledges a social worker from Gran Canaria who has gone through different foster care resources in recent years. “The kids who may complain are removed, because I have seen that. You leave your house super clean, you buy things… There are centers that don’t even pass the filter of how bad they are,” he says. According to her testimony, control is greater in the homes managed by the Island Council, where, according to her, at least one inspection is carried out a year.
Asked if the foundations are notified that the inspection will take place on a specific date, the general director responds “not necessarily.” “There are inspections that are carried out without prior notice and others in which it is necessary to communicate because the aim is to talk to the minors, for which it is necessary that they be in the centers,” he emphasizes.
With respect to the violence exercised against minors in the centers, the general director of Children assures that two cases have been notified to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of the Minors Section of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and a third to the UCRIF (the Central Unit of Immigration Networks and Documentary Falsehoods of the National Police). Two other cases investigated by the Public Ministry correspond to events that took place in two emergency facilities in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and that were notified to the Prosecutor’s Office by the Ministry of Youth.
Unicef insists on the lack of homogeneous action protocols. According to the United Nations agency that works to defend children’s rights, the protection system must establish a system of indicators that allows centers to be safe and protective environments for children “also in emergency situations.”
The United Nations recalls that the requirements of the Law on Comprehensive Protection of Children (LOPIVI) against violence must be met, creating complaint mechanisms so that children can submit their problems and specific plans for protection against violence are adopted. “These advances (and the problems that may arise along this path) have to be monitored at all times by the responsible administrations,” says Unicef.
An emergency that lasts years
The poor supervision of the centers is, according to Unicef, a “constant” in many autonomous communities. A lack that becomes more acute in situations of “migratory contingencies.” “Neither the supervision that the juvenile prosecutor’s offices have to carry out nor that of the General Directorates for Children are as frequent as they should be,” they point out from the United Nations agency that works to defend the rights of children.
Although inspections are “always” essential, they are even more so when “totally saturated” emergency centers are opened and “poorly trained” professionals are hired. “Let us keep in mind that emergency centers continue to open, it is difficult to find trained personnel, there are centers with more than 150 children… The degree of frustration and emotional conditions are very worrying due to the lack of training options and psychological care or due to the delays in the procedures,” they add.
For Virginia Álvarez, head of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Research area, the problem is that the reception of unaccompanied minors in the Canary Islands continues to be managed as an emergency. “The fact that there are so few inspections is a symptom that resources have not been sufficiently appropriated,” he says.
Álvarez also points to the lack of personnel and recalls that, although it has now been reinforced, the General Directorate of Children had eight technicians in each province. “Many of the problems that have occurred in the centers are also due to the fact that there has not been adequate surveillance by those responsible who have to exercise it,” indicates the researcher.
“I believe that enough time has passed for the Canarian and state authorities to realize that this is not something of an emergency. Human resources must be resized to meet the real needs that exist,” he concludes.
This newspaper has tried to find out the version of the entities Samu, Quórum and Asociación Coliseo, in charge of managing many of the centers for migrant minors in the Canary Islands, but none of the three have responded.
#Xray #inspection #migrant #minor #centers #controls #years #visits #prior #notice
