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Spain adopts measure to transfer unaccompanied migrant minors from the Canary Islands

MADRID (AP) — Spain adopted a measure Wednesday to redistribute thousands of unaccompanied underage migrants currently sheltered on the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off northwest Africa where thousands of people arrive by boat each year trying to reach Europe.

The reform ends a months-long political stalemate between Spain’s regions and the central government and is aimed at easing pressure on overcrowded migrant reception centers, mainly in the Canary Islands.

For several months, local leaders in the Canaries have complained about a lack of resources to shelter the thousands of unaccompanied children and teenagers, many of them from West Africa, who reached their shores.

In Spain, which has a population of 49 million, the central government handles the treatment of adult migrants, while regional governments are responsible for unaccompanied minors.

After the measure was approved Tuesday, Ángel Victor Torres, the government minister in charge of Spain's relations with its regions, called the measure a “milestone in the defense of human rights” and the rights of minors.

“It would be good for anyone with doubts to visit a migrant (reception) center,” said Torres, who previously led the Canary Islands regional government. "And see that in spaces for 20 people, there are 300 people, and that they are kids of 15 years, 10 years and five years."

For regions such as the Canary Islands and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa who cannot host more unaccompanied minors, the measure would allow for some of them to be transferred to other regions in Spain, factoring in a region's population, per capita income, unemployment rate and other considerations.

The Canary Islands are sheltering more than 5,000 unaccompanied minors across the archipelago. Some 4,000 migrants will be transferred elsewhere within mainland Spain.

While final numbers are still being hashed out, the wealthy Catalonia region that includes Barcelona will only receive between 20 and 30 unaccompanied minors, a spokesperson for the Junts per Catalunya party said.

The support of Catalan-separatist party Junts for the measure was key to Spain's Socialist-led minority government clinching a deal.

The strip of Atlantic ocean between West Africa and the Canary Islands is one of the world's deadliest migration routes. Nearly 47,000 people who made the crossing last year reached the archipelago, shattering previous records for a second time. Most were citizens of Mali, Senegal and Morocco, with many boarding boats to Spain from the coast of Mauritania.

Numbers so far this year are down, according to Spain's Interior Ministry. Almost 11,000 migrants have reached Spain this year by sea as of March 15, a 21% decrease from the same period last year.