The Spanish government launches the distribution of migrant minors, including the Balearic Islands.

PalmThe Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday a decree establishing the reception capacity of the autonomous communities, including the Balearic Islands, and which represents the final step in implementing the distribution of migrant minors. Spanish government spokesperson Pilar Alegría stated that this is an "important step to guarantee the rights of migrant children" and that it affects "children who arrive alone in our country and who must be given a dignified, supportive, and humanitarian welcome."

To establish the ordinary reception capacity for each community, the Spanish government has established a ratio of 32 minors per 100,000 inhabitants. Communities whose occupancy triples their ordinary reception capacity, such as the Canary Islands and Ceuta, must request a migratory contingency status—which the executive will declare—so that the minors from their territory can be transferred to other communities with less saturated resources. According to this formula, the ordinary reception capacity of the Balearic Islands is 406 minors.

Under this criterion, which the PP rejects, most autonomous communities are hosting fewer migrant minors than they could possibly accommodate based on their population. The greatest differences are in Andalusia, with 1,372 fewer minors than they could host; the Valencian Community, with 1,216 fewer; and Galicia, with 620 fewer.

With the decree's entry into force, the mandatory solidarity mechanism demanded by the Canary Islands begins to operate, through which 3,000 minors from the most stressed areas will be transferred within one year. For this reason, the Spanish government reformed the Immigration Law, with the PP opposed. This procedure also means that migrant minors arriving from September onwards in areas with stressed resources will have to be transferred to other autonomous communities within 15 days. The Spanish government will hold an inter-ministerial meeting next Tuesday to begin the transfers, as announced by the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, and reported by the EFE news agency. The transfers will also take into account parameters such as income, unemployment rate, prior effort, dispersion, and insularity.

In July, the Spanish government calculated the maximum number of minors that the regions should take in. The regions that will have to take in the most are Andalusia (677), Madrid (647), and the Valencian Community (571). The list continues with Castilla-La Mancha (320), Galicia (317), Aragon (251), La Rioja (205), Castilla y León (197), Extremadura (159), Cantabria (156), Asturias (144), Murcia (133), Navarre (118), and Navarre (118). Neither the Basque Country nor Catalonia will have to take in minors, although Catalonia announced its intention to care for at least thirty.

Rejection by the autonomous communities governed by the People's Party

Ten autonomous communities governed by the People's Party (PP) and Castilla-La Mancha (PSOE) have appealed this forced mechanism to the Constitutional Court, while the Community of Madrid has appealed to the Supreme Court, as Marga Prohens announced the Balearic Islands will do, which will also request a precautionary suspension of the distribution.

The transfer of the minors involves funding of 100 million euros, with which the Ministry of Children and Youth will pay for the transfers and the first three months of care.

The Government is studying measures in case the appeal doesn't work.

The Director General of Immigration and Development Cooperation, Manuel Pavón, reiterated this Tuesday that the government's objective is to stop the arrival of minors from the Canary Islands to the Balearic Islands, but not the complete distribution that the Spanish government wants to implement. Pavón also explained that the Minister of Families, Social Welfare, and Dependency Care, Sandra Fernández, is studying what measures the islands can take if the appeal against the government's distribution is unsuccessful, according to Europa Press.

The Director General asked, "What's the point of the Balearic Islands hosting migrant minors if they might have to distribute them in a few months?" – the Spanish government is scheduled to begin the distribution next Thursday.

Last week, the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, announced her intention to ask the Supreme Court (SC) to temporarily suspend the distribution, according to which 49 minors should arrive in the islands. Government sources have insisted that the Balearic Islands' reception capacity does not contemplate any other scenario than the temporary suspension of the distribution and have reiterated that all possible legal measures to halt it should be studied.

Pavón has once again stated that the situation in the Canary Islands is one of "collapse and saturation" and has described having to receive children in these conditions as "indignant." "It's for their own sake, because they'll be in a situation they don't deserve," he said, in addition to criticizing the lack of information from the Spanish government.

Regarding the Canary Islands' government's criticism of the Balearic Islands' refusal to accept children from distribution, the director general has admitted that the situation in the Canary Islands is worse today. "But the statistics and data speak for themselves. The Balearic Islands may have to distribute; even the Spanish government delegate [Alfonso Rodríguez] has said so."