BARCELONA: The children sometimes wo n’t stop crying. Health workers dealing with refugees arriving on Spain’s Canary Islands try to understand if the tears are from sickness, damage, or, as is often the case, from real impact.
One young Senegalese boy recently disembarked and kept fainting for a while, bothering doctors who could n’t figure out what was wrong. The boy had witnessed both parents pass away during the lengthy boat ride from West Africa, according to other migrants, who suddenly explained. Their body were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean by a shipwreck.
” There’s no medicine for that”, said Inmaculada Mora Peces, a 54-year-old emergency doctor who treats migrants arriving on the island of El Hierro.
Mora Peces is one of the growing number of people who is raising the alarm as the coast struggles to cope with the thousands of teens and children fleeing hunger, turmoil, and other African countries to the European Union territory.
Spain’s congress will vote on a bill on Tuesday to require additional regions to accept role for some of the minors who are already trapped on the Canaries and are in severe conditions.
There is no guarantee that the costs will go, and it has caused a nationwide political turmoil.
The traditional Popular Party, the leading opposition to Spain’s left-wing federal government, is torn. It is a young member of the Canary Islands federal, and its top companion, the Coral Coalition group, is urging it to back the agreement on one hand. In contrast, the far-right Vox group, which rails against unaccompanied minors and especially against organized migration, is threatening to step down from its alliance governments in other areas if the Popular Party agrees to travel young immigrants, yet freely.
The local authorities where the children are brought up are liable for their care under Spanish legislation. But the Canary Islands state says it is confused, with more than 5, 500 minors- much above its potential for 2, 000.
” It’s a charitable catastrophe”, said Francisco Candil, a local government official in charge of social security.
The regional government struggles to find qualified individuals to work with the young migrants on the islands, which are located about 1,300 kilometers ( 800 miles ) from mainland Spain, despite the fact that they lack physical space.
In consequence, the children and teenagers who are languishing on the islands are not receiving the privileges they are entitled to under Spanish and German legislation, including education and healthcare. Spanish media has covered overcrowded facilities as well as instances of abuse and abuse. Authorities have constructed temporary huts to support the new arrivals on Lanzarote.
Only 100 kilometers ( 60 miles ) from Africa’s western coast are the boats that travel from Senegal, Mauritania, and the Western Sahara to the Spanish islands, Candil warned.
Almost 20, 000 men, women and children have reached the Canaries so far this year, a 160 % increase from 2023. And that is even before the fall’s great year for immigrant bridges, Candil continued.
To prevent smugglers from launching vessels for Spain, the EU signed a 210 million euros cope with Mauritania earlier this year. The offer has, however, had a small impact on migrant visitors at this time.
If the bill does n’t pass for consideration in the Spanish parliament on Tuesday, “it would be a failure for Spain and Europe”, Candil said. With a population of 48 million people, it should n’t be difficult for regions in mainland Spain to cope with a few hundred children, he argued. The majority of alone minors would still be cared for in the Canary Islands.
After visiting two tents for young workers in Tenerife, Spain’s Ombudsman Angel Gabilondo called for urgent architectural and constitutional reforms on Friday.
Going to a center to see the kids and feeling their pain is plenty, Gabilondo said. They have spent months in the centers and do n’t see a bright future. We are talking about human people, not items”.
However, industry figures like Mora Peces claim they are vulnerable in the presence of so many young people who arrive in horrible problems after the harmful ocean voyage.
When I arrived for my shift immediately, my coworkers were crying. Well, I started working and in the conclusion I ended up crying too”, Mora Peces wrote on X next year, a message that has already gotten over 864, 000 opinions.
A 2-year-old woman who was on a boat from Senegal next year, along with her 8-year-old brother and mother, was tried by doctors next year. Despite making numerous tries to protect her, the child died after being separated from her home.
Mora Peces had to tell her mother the dreadful news. The family requested a picture of her mother’s figure, which Mora Peces requested sent to the funeral house.
Candil and others are concerned about the nearly 200 young women traveling alone in the past eight months, compared to the vast majority of unaccompanied minors arriving in the form of teenage boys. ” It’s very unusual”, Candil said.
The women flee forced marriages, abusive relationships, oppression or merely find a better lifestyle, explained Siham Khalifa El Abdi, of the SAMU base which runs shelters especially for alone girls.
Among those under SAMU’s treatment is a girl who fled Mali according to her physical preference. In exchange for food, she was assaulted and forced to had intercourse with older people during her five-month movement to Spain.
” These females are very ruined”, said Khalifa El Abdi.
Mora Peces, a physician employed in El Hierro, claims she is horrified by the language used by some Madrid politicians to discuss the issue, including Vox and the Popular Party, who have demanded that the Hispanic army and navy be stationed to prevent the immigrant boats.
She describes the view of migrants as being “rapists” and” thieves” as being completely in opposition to the fact of the “tiny individuals in serious circumstances” that she treats. She hears politicians and even regular people calling workers” thieves.”
” What they are discussing at the political level, it seems like they are no children”, she said. ” As if they were n’t people”.
