The Government and Council of Mallorca are unaware of whether the State will transfer migrant minors to the Balearic Islands.

PalmThe president of the Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS), Guillermo Sánchez, has stated that the government and the Consell de Mallorca are unaware of whether the Balearic Islands will have to take in migrant minors transferred from the Canary Islands—the distribution began on Monday with ten children—as reported by Europa Press on Tuesday. Sánchez, who is also the island institution's Minister of Social Welfare, has criticized the Spanish government's failure to report "either on the distribution of minors from the Canary Islands to the Balearic Islands or on what has happened with regard to asylum seekers."

"I have contacted the Minister of Families, Social Welfare and Care for Dependent People, Sandra Fernández, and she told me that she has not heard anything from the Spanish government either. We have no information, and the government continues with its erratic immigration policy," the president added.

With the transfer of ten children, the Supreme Court's ruling issued in June, which called on the Spanish government to adopt urgent measures for the more than a thousand migrant children who were in the Canary Islands and had requested asylum protection, begins to take effect. The transfers will take place every week.

According to Madrid's calculations, the Balearic Islands will have to accommodate 49 migrant children, although Guillermo Sánchez has reiterated that he has no more information than that provided at the last sectoral conference on children. In any case, has reiterated the refusal of the Consell de Mallorca to accommodate these children due to overcrowding in the island's centers.

Sánchez also referred to the warning made by the Spanish government delegateAlfonso Rodríguez, who said that the islands could, "in a few months or a year," enter a situation in which minors would need to be transferred to other regions. "The delegate says that a situation similar to that of the Canary Islands could arise in months, but he does nothing to prevent this influx," he criticized.

The island's Minister of Social Welfare has called for "treatment at source" of migratory flows and for the activation of the Frontex system. "This irregular migration, which is affecting the care of minors in Mallorca, must not occur," he stated.