In the first five months of 2024, 18,000 migrants arrived on the Canary Islands' coasts. Leaders of churches say solidarity is needed between regions in Spain.
A boat cruises along the coast of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Tens of thousands of people have arrived on the Canary Islands in recent years. / Photo: [link]Maria Bobrova[/link], Unsplash, CC0.
The 'distribution' of people arriving in Spain between the different regions is a particularly sensitive demand in the regions most affected by the migratory issue, such as the Canary Islands.
According to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), in the first five months of 2024, nearly 18,000 migrants arrived on the Canary Islands' coasts.
Moreover, Frontex estimates that the West African migratory route has experienced a 303% increase compared to the same time period in 2023.
“The arrivals are aggravating the situation. The islands are overwhelmed”, Philippe Chevalley, president of the Evangelical Council of the Canary Islands, told Spanish news website Protestante Digital.
At the political level, everything seems to go slower than reality demands.
The debate continues to focus on whether it is necessary to oblige other regions to host part of the people arriving on the islands, as the European Union has done, not without controversy.
Regarding unaccompanied minors, Spain's minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, recently acknowledged that the voluntary solidarity that existed so far is “not working properly, because in many cases the transfers were not taking place”.
The regional government of the Canary Islands, after issuing an alarm on the over-satured reception centres, has entered into a legal battle to try other regions in Spain to step up their efforts.
For Ángel Manuel Hernández, pastor of the Modern Christian Mission church, which works with migrants who arrive in Fuerteventura, “the urgency of the distribution of migrants does not lay in removing them from the Canary Islands, but in creating policies that work and space for those who are yet to arrive, because this is never going to stop, and anyone who believes otherwise is deluded”.
“In the Canary Islands we are not trying to 'get rid of' migrants, but to avoid an overcrowding that prevents us from serving them adequately”, he underlines.
As for minors, “once guardianship passes to the Canary Islands government, they must be cared for, looked after and schooled like any other child”.
“It is a question of keeping our conscience, values and human principles intact, which prevent us from treating those who migrate without dignity”, says the church leader, who has been praised by the authorities for the church's work among migrants.
Pastor Hernández insists that “the distribution of responsibilities should be made mandatory and punishable, as happens in the European Union with countries that do not fulfil their commitments to receive migrants”.
“The words 'solidarity' or 'volunteer cooperation' are not the most appropriate ones, because this is about being responsible and consequent with the principles and values that human rights represent”.
Hernández pointed out that “there is a lack of serious concern for what is happening on the islands in strategic terms" and claimed that "the massive influx of migrants into the Canary Islands is not just an issue for the islands, but for the whole of Spain”.
“They are all seeking to reach what they call 'the great Spain', the mainland, and from there to continue on their way to France or Germany, mainly. As an anecdote, one person once asked us which bus to take to go to the Real Madrid stadium”, says the pastor.
Both Hernández and Chevalley call for solidarity and responsibility from the churches on the mainland that “should be more involved in helping, as the Bible says we have to help the foreigner”.
In the Modern Christian Mission church, they “have felt the responsibility of involvement in the migration phenomenon as from God”. “We believe that more than a great job, it is a great opportunity to serve the Lord and our neighbour. It breaks our hearts to hear the stories, some of them even of terrible Christian persecution”.
Hernandez speaks of “the lack of hospitality, compassion and justice towards the most vulnerable” as “the real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah”, recalling that “those cities not only closed their physical borders, but also their spiritual and moral borders, refusing to help those in need”.
“The goodwill of the Lord and his mercy on a country is linked to the welcoming of foreigners as the text of Isaiah 60:10 clearly shows”.
That is why, “Christian thinking cannot be aligned with those who, in defence of a cultural identity or prioritising resources for natives, see immigration as a threat, and seek to close borders completely, impose dangerous physical barriers or punish illegal migrants as if they were criminals”, stresses the pastor.
The members of the Modern Christian Mission church, whose work was recognised by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), have “learned that if a Christian feels that his faith is threatened by the arrival of migrants with other beliefs, it is because that Christian is not firm in his faith or is not fulfilling his mission in his own country: to evangelise, congregate and support his local church”.
“Migration will always benefit us as a people, not only physically, but morally and spiritually”, concludes the pastor.
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