Migrants rest on the pier after disembarking from a ‘cayuco’ (wooden boat) following a rescue operation on July 4, 2023 at the port of Los Cristianos, on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife.
Desiree Martin / AFP
There is little talk about the illegal immigration arriving in the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco-controlled Western Sahara, and part of Spain. Thousands of boats have reached the islands for years, overwhelming local services.
Now, the socialist government is secretly distributing these illegals across the country under the cover of night. Last week, the central government agreed with separatist parties to exempt the Basque Country and Catalonia from participating in this distribution, further fueling public anger.
MEP Jorge Buxadé denounces, without hesitation, the “complicity” of Pedro Sánchez’s government with the illegal immigration mafias operating in the Canary Islands. According to his testimony following an official European Parliament mission to El Hierro at the end of May, it was all “a perfectly orchestrated cover-up operation.”
The head of the VOX delegation in Brussels warns that the migratory crisis in the Canary Islands is just one symptom of the general collapse of European migration policies. In this interview with europeanconservative.com, he analyzes the failures of the EU Migration Pact, criticizes the EU’s weakness toward Morocco, and proposes firm solutions: sealing borders, cutting aid, signing return agreements, and executing a remigration plan.
What we saw was a farce. There wasn’t a single illegal immigrant visible—neither at the port nor at the temporary reception centers. The government had staged everything. They brought state secretaries’ cameras and repeated the script that everything was under control. But the very day we were leaving, a boat with more than 60 immigrants landed in El Hierro. I don’t have proof, but I also have no doubt: this was a planned operation, with the complicity of Sánchez’s government.
Absolutely. For there to be no visible immigrants during our visit, there must have been several days without arrivals. The classification process takes at least 72 hours. And for a massive boat to arrive exactly as we were leaving … it’s just not credible.
Furthermore, the regional government was also complicit. The People’s Party (PP) and Coalición Canaria (Canary Coalition) told us everything was fine and they needed more money from Brussels. They don’t want to solve the problem—they want to profit from it.
They are dispersed. They arrive in El Hierro, are then moved to other islands, and are placed on planes to the mainland shortly afterward. In just six or seven days, an illegal immigrant can be walking the streets of Paris, Berlin, or Rome without us knowing who they are, where they came from, or what their intentions might be. It’s a deliberate process without control or containment. It’s the pure effect of Sánchez’s open-door policy.
Morocco uses immigration as a tool of political pressure. It did it in Ceuta and is doing it in the Canary Islands. When it wants something from Brussels, it eases coastal controls and lets the boats sail. And the EU pays. The same is true for Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia … Brussels has turned its weakness in foreign policy into a blank check for these regimes.
None. I was the rapporteur for two valid documents—Eurodac and the screening regulation—but the pact as a whole is a disaster. It rests on two flawed premises: first, that Brussels should centralize everything when border defense is a national competence; second, that it institutionalizes the compulsory relocation of migrants under the guise of solidarity. That just fuels the pull factor.
Yes, massively. Many claim to be refugees but are, in fact, economic migrants. Others are pushed by Islamic religious networks promoting a replacement migration. What is being created in Europe is not integration or multiculturalism—it’s ghettos. And the stronger a ghetto is, the more migrants it attracts. Far from being resolved, this dynamic is being encouraged.
First, deploy the military and Navy to our maritime borders. Second, eliminate the entrenchment—you can’t reward someone with legal papers just for staying illegally in Spain for two or three years. Third, cut all aid to illegal immigration and put an end to automatic and fraudulent naturalizations. And, of course, launch a remigration plan: orderly, large-scale deportations.
Diplomatic and economic pressure. If they don’t sign return agreements, we cut development aid. That’s what Trump did with Mexico, and it worked. We want Malians to live and work in Mali, to build businesses and a future there. But to make that possible, we can’t keep financing dictators who push their people to emigrate. Worse still, Brussels is funding regimes like South Africa’s, which is openly racist against white minorities. That is intolerable.
Yes, and it’s a legitimate solution. Albania is a safe country. The problem is the progressive judges who, instead of applying the law in the national interest, interpret it ideologically. We’ve seen this in Italy, the UK, and Spain, too. We need judges who understand that the law is meant to serve the national community and cultural cohesion. That is key to restoring sovereignty.
