Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the President of Spain’s opposition’s centre-right Partido Popular (PP), has spoken out against the government’s proposed reforms of its migration framework.
His comments came just days after the PP had accepted the ruling Socialist Party’s (PSOE) relocation scheme to distribute 347 unaccompanied underage migrants currently staying in the Canary Islands and the Autonomous City of Ceuta in Northern Africa. According to official estimates, in the Canary Islands alone, there are some 6,000 unaccompanied foreign minors.
On July 16, Feijóo urged Prime Minister Sánchez “to call for a national migratory emergency and a conference of regional presidents”.
He added that, so far, the Socialist government has used the issue of migration as a “political weapon” against the PP at the expense of the “dignity and suffering of many”.
The PP leader said that, in the “absence” of a national migration policy, the government had only proposed to “distribute migrant minors without checking if they are indeed underage, or letting adults circulate when later they are shown to be minors”.
The government bill is co-sponsored by the PSOE with coalition partner party SUMAR and the Canary Coalition (CC) regional party.
To help regional authorities financially, the national government promised to grant them €100 per day per migrant they receive.
The Conservative VOX party criticised the incentives, which it pointed out would cost taxpayers around €3,000 per underage migrant per month. The deal prompted the party’s “exit” of its representatives from the five regions where they have governed with the PP since May 2023.
“All Spaniards will have to pay for this, the same who do not even earn that from their hard work,” said VOX President Santiago Abascal.
Sánchez’s government has said the Canary Islands, the North African Autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla could receive up to 2,000, 88, and 166 migrants respectively.
The Government has said it would assume “the necessary financial measures” once the bill became law.
Feijóo warned the proposed reform would have a “clear ‘pull effect’ because every minor would know the government would have to provide attention to them because it is required by law to do so”.
On July 12, he had hit out at what he termed the government’s disastrous migration policies. “It’s obvious, and I want to be very clear about this, that the regions’ capacities are limited,” he said.
According to the bill, the government would need to outline a plan that lays out the criteria for the allocation of these migrants.
