The Deputy Minister of Foreign Action of the Government of the Canary Islands, John Raphael ZamoraHe asked for aid to returned migrants and, in turn, administrative procedures are streamlined for the homologation of university degrees, especially for Canarian-Venezuelans.
Zamora, who attended the plenary session of the General Council of Spanish Citizens Abroad on June 14 and 15, held in Madrid, stated that it is two highly demanded items for citizenship.
The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, and the Secretary of State for Migration, Jesús Javier Perea, participated in the event. The plenary elected Violeta Alonso as the new president.
The deputy minister also requested that the Emigration Medal of Honor be awarded, posthumously, to the former member of that Council, the Canarian Carmelo Gonzalez Acostamigrant to Cuba and one of the greatest defenders in that country.
Return of canaries in pandemic
He also underlined the support of the consular body of Spain to the work of return of the canaries abroad during the period with reduced mobility due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the section on acknowledgments for actions carried out, the Department of Foreign Action recognized the elimination of the requested vote and applauded the inter-administrative collaboration for the benefit of Spanish emigrants.
For Zamora, this session of the General Council of Spanish Citizens Abroad was very fruitful because a battery of proposals came forward that will result in improving the quality of life of Spaniards residing outside their country.
The Vice-Minister for Foreign Action explained the main lines of action of the Canary Executive in attention to residents outside the islands, especially the most needy and vulnerable.
More than 173,00 canaries abroad
Along these lines, he referred to the fact that it is a priority to serve the more than 173,000 Canarians who are abroad, as well as the different entities, which are currently 96, distributed in 11 countries, in addition to 14 located in the Peninsula.
Regarding these non-profit organizations, he said that they do a great job, in collaboration with the Canary Islands government, to maintain Canarian culture and island traditions. In addition to providing assistance services to canaries and their descendants with greater social vulnerability who are abroad.
“The Vice Ministry of Foreign Action of the Government of the Canary Islands has made a budgetary effort in this legislature to help our people abroad, since the items dedicated to this purpose have increased by 91.75% from 2019 to 2022”, Zamora said.
Of the 173,699 Canarians residing outside of Spain, 60,000 are in Venezuela and around 65,000 in Cuba. For this reason, the actions of the Canary Islands government in relation to this group are mainly focused on those countries, without forgetting the rest, indicated Juan Rafael Zamora.
