Migration Committee members are briefed about the situation on Gran Canaria, 21 March 2025LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA, 22 March 2025 – A 12-member delegation of the OSCE PA Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, led by its Chair, OSCE PA Vice-President Daniela De Ridder (Germany), was in Madrid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 20-21 March, to learn more about how Spain has been coping with a major spike of irregular migrant arrivals since 2020 along the Western African Atlantic route from Morocco and further down the African coast to the Canary Islands. The visit aimed to identify areas of best practice with respect to migration management and assess areas where further support is needed, in particular with regards to vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied minors.

Hosted by OSCE PA Vice-President Pere Joan Pons (Spain) and the Congress of Deputies, the delegation met with key authorities, including Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory Ángel Víctor Torres Pérez, Secretary of State for Migration Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, officials from the International Protection department of the Ministry of Interior, as well as parliamentary spokespersons on migration. They also visited an emergency reception centre for male adults transferred from the Canary Islands as well as Ceuta and Melilla.

OSCE PA delegation with Fernando Clavijo Batlle, President of the Regional Government of the Canary Islands, 21 March 2025On the island of Gran Canaria, the delegation met with Anselmo Pestana Padrón, Government Delegate in the Autonomous Region of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo Batlle, President of the Regional Government of the Canary Islands, and representatives of international organizations and NGOs, including UNHCR, Red Cross, Save the Children. They also visited two further facilities – one hosting men and the other single women and families.

OSCE PA delegates learned more about how the Canary Islands are handling the record level of nearly 47,000 irregular arrivals in 2024, many of whom are unaccompanied minors and a growing number of women. More than 10,000 deaths and disappearances were recorded in 2024 along this and other various sea routes to Spain.

“Spain deserves a good deal of credit for its efforts to manage irregular migration. There is a lot that we can learn from the Spanish approach for example their agreements with countries of origin which seek to address root causes of migration,” said Ad Hoc Committee Chair Daniela De Ridder. “We must do more to support the authorities of the Canary Islands who are doing an admirable job in responding humanely to the record number of arrivals. Many of these migrants are vulnerable women and children, and we must ensure that they especially are protected.”

The Canary Islands are currently hosting over 5,000 unaccompanied minors, far beyond official reception capacity, as responsibility for hosting them falls with the autonomous regions rather than the national government. Interlocutors in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria welcomed the decree recently adopted in Madrid to establish a mandatory mechanism for the redistribution of unaccompanied minors from the Canary Islands to other regions of Spain.

Meeting with Angel Víctor Torres Perez, Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Madrid, 20 March 2025“The majority of people in Spain empathize with the plight of migrants,” Ad Hoc Committee member Artemi Vicent Rallo (Spain) stressed. “However, we need more solidarity at the European level and a common European approach to the root causes of migration.” Rallo also underlined the need for further development support to countries of origin to stem the flow of irregular migration.

Some interlocutors also called for facilitating access to asylum procedures, as well as more accessible and effective information and legal assistance for migrants.

Border protection, combating migrant smuggling and trafficking, and the need for more legal pathways were also discussed, as well as the expectations from implementation of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Migration’s delegation included Vice-Chairs Kemal Çelik (Türkiye); Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (Cyprus); Farah Karimi (The Netherlands); Gudrun Kugler (Austria); and members Alessandro Alfieri (Italy); Canan Bayram (Germany); Valérie Boyer (France); Hedy Fry (Canada); Artemi Vicent Rallo (Spain); Liliana Reis (Portugal); and Baroness Rosie Winterton (United Kingdom).

Photos of the visit are available for public use on Flickr.

To learn more about the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, please click here.