Melgosa does not rule out bringing migrant minors from Ceuta to the Basque Country, but warns that "we are taking more than our due"

The Basque Council for Welfare, Youth and Demographic Challenge, Nerea Melgosa, has not ruled out bringing migrant minors from Ceuta to the Basque Country, but has recalled that the Basque Autonomous Community already receives "more minors than its due".

In statements to the media in Bilbao, Melgosa explained that he had received "no news" in this regard after the Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, announced that the Spanish Government had prepared 500 places on the peninsula to speed up the transfer of minors to Ceuta.

Reception network "under tension"

The counsellor has put on the table the current situation of the reception network in the Basque Country. "What needs to be made clear is how the reception system in the Basque Country is: it is under stress," she said, after the Bizkaia Council yesterday declared a state of emergency in the reception network for migrant minors.

Melgosa has stressed that institutions are working to respond to the overload of resources and has argued that the priority should be to care for minors in the Basque Country.

"We have to take care of what we have right now, not what will come," he summed up.

Euskadi ready for dialogue

Journalists ask him if the Basque Country can reach an agreement similar to that reached by Navarre with Ceuta. Navarre undertakes to take in five minors. Melgosa replies that if the Spanish Government officially asks the Basque Country for help, it will be examined "when the time comes".

"If they knock on my door, we will talk about everything," said the counsellor, who said that Euskadi is "always ready" to engage in dialogue and reach agreements with the Spanish Government.

However, he recalled that the Basque Country "also has its own conditions that must be met".

Calls for immigration powers

Melgosa has called for a "strategic and structural immigration plan" and recalled that migration is a "very complex phenomenon" and that the Basque Country has a "northern border".

Thus, in his view, the Basque Country should have "all the competences and competences in the field of immigration". In this regard, he has argued that the Basque Country should have an "active voice" in migration policy and has once again called for competence in this field.