BARCELONA, Spain — A row over where to house African migrants increasingly arriving by boat on Spain's Canary Islands deepened Thursday, when the mayor of the most affected town urged the Spanish government to transfer them out of local hotels.
More than 20,000 West Africans and Moroccans have reached the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean by boat or been rescued at sea so far this year, up from 1,500 in the same period of 2019.
Onalia Bueno, mayor of Mogán in Gran Canaria island, said the government should remove 3,471 migrants, including unaccompanied minors, from 10 hotels in her area by the year's end, when hoteliers' contracts expire, and take them to government facilities, including in the mainland.
"The solidarity of Mogán has an expiration date of 31 December," Bueno said. She fears news of migrants being temporarily housed in resorts would tarnish the islands' image as a tourism destination, especially for British holidaymakers.
Bueno threatened to fine hotels up to 300,000 euros if they continued to rent rooms to the government next year.
"We cannot continue to allow Gran Canaria to become a prison, a Lampedusa or a Lesbos due to this government's inaction and lack of coordination," she said.
Spain's State Secretary for Migration Hana Jalloul rebuffed the ultimatum saying the hotels are an adequate transitional solution given the plunge in tourism caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Questioned about the issue at a briefing with foreign correspondents, Jalloul asked: "If I left those migrants on the streets right now, social services would have to take responsibility for them. Do you think the mayor has the resources to house 3,400 migrants?"
