The Canary Islands are increasingly developing into an escape route for illegal migrants from Africa and are recording dramatic arrival figures. The mood in Tenerife, the largest and most populous island of the eight Canary Islands, is tense, not only among the islanders, but also among the illegal migrants.
Because the transfer to mainland Spain and the onward journey to destination countries has not proceeded as planned, illegal migrants are now stuck in a warehouse on the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.
After their arrival, thousands of illegals were accommodated in hotels, some of them 4-star hotels, and now many adventurers have had to leave the paradisiacal accommodation and move on to reception camps. Not only are the days of well-equipped apartments and hotel rooms over, apparently also those of the buffets, because the food in the migrant camp is evidently not the same quality and has triggered conflicts in the dining room.
A brutal confrontation took place on Saturday afternoon between a group of immigrants, who had previously been temporarily housed in hotels in Maspalomas and Mogán. Security guards at the Las Raíces detention center had to seek help from the local and national police when tensions flared up because the quality of the food did not match that of the luxury hotels. The police arrested seven people in the clashes that broke out.
The protests turned violent, and the NGO Accem, which manages the facilities, had to alert the authorities to send reinforcements to control the situation after a fight broke out between migrants and the centre’s security guards.
The coexistence in Las Raíces between the different ethnic groups of migrants has also become more and more complicated as the weeks go by, local daily Maspalomas Ahora reported.
https://freewestmedia.com/2021/03/16/food-fights-tenerife-illegals-turn-violent/