The judicial siege against social quorum 77, the main NGO of reception of migrant minors in the Canary Islands, narrows. The Autonomous Police has arrested two executives of the Association on Thursday, has closed one of the centers that it managed in Gran Canaria and registered another, in which it now reaches its second phase and that responds to proceedings of the Court number 3 of violence against childhood and adolescence of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The center which has been closed housed 148 lower than the Social Welfare Ministry of the Islands now tries to relocate in other facilities. Managers have been released with charges late on Thursday, reports the regional newspaper
The records have been carried out during this Thursday, in the center that manages the NGO in the town of Firgas and in José García I, in Arinaga, which is the one that has been closed. According to sources from the Canarian government, the 148 children will go from the afternoon of this Thursday to 21 different centers, given the impossibility of relocating them in one, especially. Among the detainees is the president of Quorum Social 77, Delia García. The actions have been declared secret by the magistrate.
Only two months ago, in May, another center managed by this NGO – Fort Talley I – had also been closed in a judicial action that has its origin in a complaint by the Canary Islands government itself for several testimonies of minors and workers on abuse towards residents in the facilities. That operation resulted in nine workers of the association arrested. At that time, the Superior Court of Justice of the Community explained that the decision was made before numerous evidence and testimonies about, hate, omission of the duty to prevent crimes or promote their persecution against moral integrity and threats.
Social Quorum 77 is the NGO that most minors hosts in the Canary Islands, with about 2,000 in about thirty centers in charge. In recent years it has been the main winner of the Canarian government for minors management. The association was born in 2009 and among its three founders is the now detained Delia García. “The responsibility for our minors is a constant throughout the team of our entity,” reads its website.
Sources of the Canarian Executive have explained that the General Directorate of Child Protection, as soon as it has knowledge of some irregularity – well through inspections or complaints of the workers – gives transfer to the Court to investigate, which is what has happened in this case and that has led, for now, at the close of the center of Fortaleza and the José García I.
