Catalonia to receive unaccompanied minor migrants despite government's abstention, Spain says

The Spanish government says that Catalonia will receive unaccompanied minor migrants from the Canary Islands despite the Catalan government's abstention and pro-independence Junts party's opposition. 

In an interview on Spanish radio Ser, Spanish Children and Youth minister Sira Rego stated that the new mechanism for distributing unaccompanied minor migrants is "binding for all Autonomous Communities, including Catalonia".  

On July 10, a Childhood and Youth committee meeting took place in the Canary Islands where a reform of the distribution of the unaccompanied minor migrants was presented. 

The Spanish government and all the regions were in the meeting, and Catalonia abstained from voting in favor of distributing the 347 unaccompanied minor migrants. 

Meanwhile, Junts stated on various occasions that they will not vote in favor of the law reform in Congress unless it excludes Catalonia from having to receive minors.  

In January, the Socialists and Junts began negotiations for a deal to transfer migration powers to Catalonia so the Catalan government can have the right to decide on deporting convicted migrants with multiple offenses. 

However, the agreement is poorly defined and both parties have admitted that the exact powers to be transferred have not been specified.  

According to the data provided by Carles Campuzano, the Catalan minister for Social Rights, the Catalan child and teenager care directorate attends 6,759 people. 

2,369 are protected minors and the rest, 4,390, are older than 18 years old and are on a care extension.  

However, these numbers are very different from the ones presented by the Spanish government, that states that Catalonia takes care of 1,474 unaccompanied minor migrants.  

According to Carles Campuzano, this difference is due to the fact that 'Spain registers the first destination of the minors in another Spanish territory, but their final destination is Catalonia'. 

Of the 347 minor migrants that have arrived unaccompanied to the Canary Islands and are to be distributed throughout Spain, 31 are to be welcomed in Catalonia. In 2023, the number of unaccompanied migrant minors was 396, and Catalonia was the third region to receive more minors (33), just after Andalusia (36) and Madrid (34).  

Migration law's reform 

The distribution of unaccompanied minor migrants to all the Spanish regions is a change that the Spanish government wants to implement in the reform of the migration law.  

The Socialists, Sumar, and regional party Coalición Canaria registered on Monday a proposal to change article 35 of the migration law to establish a system of 'forced solidarity' in the distribution of unaccompanied minor migrants. 

The proposal was presented by the minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, and affects the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla, the regions of Spain where most migrants arrive. 

The proposal registered that once the minor centers in these areas surpass 150% of its capacity, unaccompanied minor migrants will be distributed to other areas.  

However, this initiative by the Spanish government does not have enough support in Congress yet.  

Junts' vote –which is essential to achieve the majority for a bid- is conditioned to the Spanish government transferring immigration powers to Catalonia. 

The Spanish government's other alternative is to seek support in the People's Party, who have asked the government to declare the 'migration emergency' in all of Spain in order to vote in favor of the reform. 

Vox breaks regional governments with People's Party 

After the Spanish government announced its proposal to reform the migration law, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative People's Party leader, confirmed that all the Autonomous Communities where the People's Party is currently in government would show 'solidarity' to receive the unaccompanied minor migrants from the Canary Islands.  

However, Feijóo stated that a lot of the minor centers were already full, and the regions needed more resources to face the new distribution. 

At the sector conference meeting that took place in the Canary Islands, all of the Autonomous Communities with a People's Party government voted in favor of distributing the 347 unaccompanied minor migrants.  

The following day, far-right Vox's leader Santiago Abascal announced that the party would be breaking ties with People's Party in all the regions where they have coalition governments.  

This decision has affected the governments in Extremadura, Múrcia, Castila y  León, Valencia, and Aragon, where the conservative People's Party now has to govern alone.