The capacity of the Islands to host unaccompanied minor migrants rises to 434 places

PalmaThe Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the royal decree by which the ordinary capacity to accommodate the unaccompanied migrant minors not accompanied in the communities and autonomous cities. The total count remains at 17,081 available places (previously it was 16,016), which raises the capacity of the Balearic Islands to 434 places: 28 more than had been planned until now.

The Ministry of Youth and Childhood has sent a statement collected by Europa Press explaining the state of the different reception systems in the territories regarding the possible declaration of extraordinary migratory contingency, which applies to autonomous communities and cities that triple their ordinary capacity, as is the case in the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla. This declaration allows minors arriving in these territories to be transferred to other communities. On April 23, the Government reported that the Islands are hosting 733 unaccompanied minor migrants.

With this royal decree, the government complies with the eleventh additional provision introduced into the Law on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their social integration, following the approval of the royal decree-law approving urgent measures for the guarantee of the superior interest of children and adolescents in situations of extraordinary migratory contingencies.

In this regard, the ministry has explained that the ordinary capacity of each of the communities has been updated based on the division between the total population of each territory and the quotient resulting from dividing the total population of Spain by the maximum number of unaccompanied foreign minors attended by the Spanish protection system as a whole.

Twelfth community in the ranking

As explained by the ministry, 3,009 places have been assigned to Andalusia, 2,829 to Catalonia, and 2,471 to Madrid, while 1,903 to the Valencian Community. Below this threshold are Galicia (940), Castile and León (833), the Canary Islands (783), Euskadi (776), Castile-La Mancha (742), Murcia (553), Aragon (476), and the Balearic Islands (434) in twelfth position in the ranking. Extremadura (364), Asturias (352), Navarre (237), Cantabria (296), and La Rioja (114) complete the state map. Ceuta and Melilla close the list with an ordinary capacity set at 30 and 29 available places, respectively.