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Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Foundation Investigated for Alleged Mismanagement of Public Funds Meant for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

The 7th Investigative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has opened a preliminary investigation into the Social Response Foundation Siglo XXI and four of its directors. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Las Palmas filed a complaint against them, alleging crimes that could include forgery of commercial documents, mismanagement, and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation aims to determine whether this nonprofit organisation, and its officials, could have misused public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, during the migration crisis of 2020 that was precipitated by the pandemic confinement on the islands, leading to a build up of arrivals having to be assessed and cared for by the Canary Islands Regional Government, using hotels left empty due to the lack of tourism. The estimated amount involved in the alleged misuse stands at around €12.5 million between 2020 and 2022 on Gran Canaria alone.

 

Canary Islands Expect Rain and Potential Storm Weather Next Week

The Canary Islands are preparing for a change in the weather next week, as a significant increase in cloud is expected bringing higher probability of rain. The effects of a powerful storm forming in the Atlantic Ocean are likely to extend to the Canary Islands as well as neighbouring Madeira and The Azores.

 

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 2-4 June 2023

June is here and that means that summer is just around the corner. The Patron Saints’ festivities in honour of San Juan de Bautista and San Antonio de Padua are just getting started on Gran Canaria, and in Pueblo de Mogán the main Romería pilgrimage for San Antonio El Chico is this first Saturday of June, as well as the start of the build up to those in Arucas, Santa Brígida and Moya. This weekend also brings the biggest outlet fair shopping experience back to INFECAR and a collectables fair in Gáldar.
OPERATION KILO is this weekend, at all participating supermarkets, asking you to add a few non-perishable food items to the Food Bank collection boxes to help families in need.

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

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The Spanish Secretary of State undertakes to transfer migrants to Government run centres asap

Hana Jalloul, Spain’s Secretary of State for migration participated this morning in an Immigration Forum, organised by the Canarian Government, in which the main migrant challenges facing the islands were discussed. She gave a firm undertaking to start to transfer migrants as soon as possible to State run facilities and said she appreciated the coordination between the administrations involved in the matter, and made clear that the situation to which the islands are currently exposed “is a priority for the Ministry led by José Luis Escrivá.”
Regarding the deployment of reception resources in recent weeks, Hana Jalloul stated: ” The Government of Spain responds. And no, it does not do so spontaneously or [in an] improvised way. There is an emergency plan in place since we arrived in this Administration. We set up our own migration centre in Tenerife, and we are working on two other self-managed centres on different islands in the Canary Islands, [for] which we have been searching [for sites] and installing for several months”. The Secretary of State for Migration pointed out that the archipelago has never deployed its own resources like this, despite the fact that the islands have experienced episodes of migratory pressure over the last three decades.”I have visited the Canary Islands twice, the first time, two weeks after arriving at this Secretariat of State and, at the beginning of August, I attended, together with the Ministers Escrivá and Darias, a telematic meeting with the Canary Islands president, Ángel Víctor Torres, focused in the migratory phenomenon”, explained Hana Jalloul, who recalled that the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration still has a visit to the islands on his agenda. “This visit has never been canceled and I want to emphasise that the minister makes a personal and exhaustive follow-up of these advances in reception matters”.
In the opening session of the forum, in addition to the Secretary of State for Migration, were the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, the Canarian Minister for Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth, Noemí Santana Perera, and the president of The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), Juan Fernando López Aguilar. Víctor Torres explained the current situation that the Canary Islands are experiencing with regard to exposure to irregular migrant arrivals, and urged action in a coordinated manner to provide a quick and effective response and a plan to transfer migrants to more appropriate facilities.
Hana Jalloul restated the Government of Spain’s commitment to managing the flows of irregular immigration that arrive on the Canary Islands. “The emergency reception sites that are currently being used in the Canary Islands did not exist in October 2019. Various reception resources have been sought and conditioned throughout 2020”, explained the Secretary of State, who recalled that in The Canary Islands, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has created 700 spaces in just the last two weeks to respond effectively to the arrivals to which the islands are exposed. “The Government of Spain responds and adapts to the flow of arrivals and the needs arising from Covid-19. At the end of 2019 there were no more than 100 reception places on the islands and today we have more than 1,700. She made clear that they would begin to transfer migrants as soon as physically possible.
“I want to call for calm and responsibility. The Canary Islands have proven to be a people of solidarity, and it deeply saddens me to see how some minorities, for partisan purposes, fill social networks with hoaxes and false images that only fuel the hatred of migrants, “said Hana Jalloul. “These people do not represent the Canarian people, and we are very aware of this.”
During her speech, the Secretary of State for Migration reiterated her sincere gratitude to the Canarian people for their attitude of solidarity in the face of the complexity of the situation, and stated that the Canary Islands have shown themselves to be capable of turning challenges into opportunities. “Proof of this is the way in which your society has turned this situation around. In recent weeks we have welcomed people who arrived after [enduring] crossings long and hard, people who were only looking for a friendly land on the other side. By temporarily deploying hotel rooms we have contributed to activating a sector hit by the COVID-19 crisis “. The Secretary of State pointed out that the hotels deployed for temporary reception of migrants were closed.
“I want to underline the role played by all the ministries involved in immigration matters, as well as the work of the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana,” she concluded.

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