The Mallorca Council is pressuring the Spanish government to repatriate migrant children

The president of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, has formally requested information from the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, regarding the status of requests for information from the countries of origin concerning the family situations of all migrant children who have arrived in the Balearic Islands, in order to assess their repatriation. "Any child protection system has as its primary mission family reunification. Children are better off with their families," stated Guillermo Sánchez, president of the Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS), on Wednesday. He emphasized that the Immigration Law stipulates that requesting information from the countries of origin regarding the family situation of each child—a procedure that must be carried out before initiating the repatriation process—is the exclusive responsibility of the Spanish state. However, Sánchez expressed his concern that he does not know "whether the Ministry of the Interior is processing these requests." In the same vein, he added that he has presided over IMAS for more than two years and that during this period the Spanish government "has neither responded nor sent any information regarding repatriations." Therefore, he reiterated that if repatriation is not possible, the child protection systems of the countries of origin will have to take responsibility. He also insisted that the Spanish government has not requested any information from the island institution about the minors who have arrived in Mallorca. Furthermore, the president of IMAS considered the €1.2 million in aid that the Spanish government will provide to the Balearic Islands to care for migrant children to be "a joke." Sánchez explained that Mallorca is entitled to approximately €700,000, an amount which, he considered, "is not even enough to cover the costs of ten days of care for the minors." Budget Execution

In 2024, the Consell de Mallorca approved the largest budget in the institution's history, totaling €646 million. In fact, one out of every two million euros is allocated to social policies. The IMAS budget increased by 4.5% compared to 2023. However, the president of the entity emphasized today that the system is compromised by a lack of funding, staff, and adapted facilities. "In terms of human resources, ratios, funding, and infrastructure, we no longer have any capacity for growth," he insisted. The left has repeatedly stated that in 2024 the island institution failed to spend 20% of its budget. The PSIB attributes this surplus to the failure to execute spending items planned in the initial budget, especially investment, across the various departments of the Council and the IMAS. For his part, Sánchez asserted that the island institution has spent the entire IMAS budget and explained that the agency has had to request an additional 15 million euros to finance the reception of migrant children. Regarding the allocation of spaces, Sánchez criticized the lack of support from some municipal institutions governed by the left. "We have requested the allocation of spaces from city councils and have received no response. If they have available spaces, I hope they will make them available to IMAS," he said. "Pure and simple racism."

Cladera described Galmés's actions as "pure and simple racism" and asserted that requesting the repatriation of migrant children under guardianship in Mallorca "crosses every red line in the defense of Human Rights and Children's Rights by a president of the Consell de Mallorca." The Socialist spokesperson attributed the initiative to a "drift towards the extreme right" by the island president, to appease the ideology of Vox's far-right partners in the Consell government. In fact, according to Cladera, "Galmés has already pushed his far-right allies, who are sitting in the government, further to the right."

That is why Cladera demands that Galmés and Sánchez "rectify" their position and reverse the decision to request the repatriation of vulnerable minors, "because the Council of Mallorca represents the people of Mallorca, and it cannot express itself in these racist, exclusionary, xenophobic terms, contrary to the principles of the letters, and even less so simply for a purely partisan strategic interest in currying favor with the far-right Vox party," she condemned.