The State finishes three new centres to house immigrants in Gran Canaria
After the dismantling of the temporary camp on the Arguineguín dock, the State has finished three places to move the 7,000 immigrants to, who are currently staying in hotels in the south of Gran Canaria. "In a few weeks or even days" these alternatives will be incorporated" and we will be able to de-escalate the use of tourist complexes," said the government delegate, Anselmo Pestana, yesterday after pressure from both business owners and the City Council of Mogán for the hotels to resume their activity.
In the three months and ten days since the camp was installed in the Arguineguín port in the municipality of Mogán, which was initially meant for 72 hours, 12,000 immigrants have arrived and, in its 400 metre space, up to 2,600 people at a time were squeezed into it.
According to the forecasts of the central government, in the next few days people will start to be transferred to the new camps in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where large tents were installed yesterday to accommodate 300 people. This location is part of the Canary Islands Plan recently presented by the Minister of Migration, José Luis Escrivá, and which basically consists of installing tents outside military installations, in addition to a warehouse donated by Bankia, with capacity for 500 people, which will also be in operation in the next few days. In addition, Madrid expects to have 650 places in the Canarias 50 headquarters in La Isleta and 1,450 places in Las Raices, in Tenerife.
The goal is for hotels and tourist complexes to be free of immigrants before the end of the year, something that the mayor of Mogán, Onalia Bueno, spoke about again yesterday, saying: “We are going to start recovering tourism and therefore we need the 7,000 beds that the State has promised to set up to accommodate migrants. If the 5,500-seat IFEMA hospital was built in two weeks, it is also possible to set up military camps in less time. The business owners associations have also demanded that complexes be clear of immigrants to reopen them and reactivate the economy.
This attitude of Onalia Bueno was harshly criticized yesterday by the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, who described it as "humanely despicable" to ask for hotels to be emptied in which there are unaccompanied immigrant minors.
From La Palma, where he travelled to attend an international conference on the recovery of tourism, Pestana indicated that it does not seem logical to give "an ultimatum" and said that the Government of Spain itself recognizes that it is not a good practice to have immigrants in hotels, but it has been a temporary and necessary resource under the circumstances, that is being used as other alternatives are opening up.