Big respect to the local people of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and the other Spanish Canary Islands. To the Coast Guard for their sea rescues, for the people with empathy and willingness to help and to the local university dedicating effort to helping with language skills and education. It may not be perfect, but there is humanity and that counts for a lot.

I have strong family ties to Tenerife but, like everyone else, haven’t been there for a long time because of COVID. Now, double-vacced, testing negative, and travel opening again, I was back for a few days and able to catch up with Spanish volunteer, Angela, who’s leading the Canarian work of Action for Education.

Increasingly difficult living conditions in Northern Africa have seen rising numbers of people willing to risk their lives making the incredibly dangerous 100-1000km crossing. Until recently, people were contained on the islands, but more recently Spain has transferred people to the mainland. As at today an estimated 2000 asylum seekers are living in the two Tenerife Refugee Camps.

Unfortunately, COVID is inside the camps and spread quickly. Whilst there are no known deaths so far, thank goodness, the authorities have closed off the camps. Refugees in / locals and others out. It remains to be seen how long this lasts for.

From a starting position of outsourcing camp operations to the experienced Red Cross, Spain has understandably opted for a more local support service. They’ve placed a Spanish NGO in charge of one camp whilst IOM is running the other. The policy is to only employ Spanish people and, whilst admirable and understandable, it’s got issues. Most notably, an inexperienced team and language barriers, along with running services on shoestring budgets, have collectively led to substantial tensions. Scarily, residents are going on hunger strike and threatening suicide. Attempts to improve things continue.

One of the biggest concerns is language. Communication and understanding helps people to stay calm and offers security and comfort. Conversely, when communication suffers, tensions rise as people feel scared, vulnerable and helpless.

Therefore, Angela and the Action for Education team are focussing on providing long-term, robust support for people to communicate with each other. Angela is experienced working with refugees having previously been in Greece, she’s spent much of lockdown in Jordan learning Arabic, and as a Spaniard is well-placed to speak to local people and build relationships. We wish this new venture from Action for Education every success.