Migration puts Balearics schools and health under strain

Schools, health provision and social services in the Balearic Islands are under pressure from large-scale migrant arrivals, the Balearic Islands Economic and Social Council has warned. Its president, Francesc Fiol, raised the alarm in Palma, Mallorca, on 24 September while presenting a report on immigration in Spain. He said the islands’ geography and size made them a fragile territory.

Nearly 30 per cent of the Balearic Islands population is made up of migrants, Fiol said. About 25 per cent of babies born in 2025 have parents who moved from other countries.

Fiol said boat arrivals in the Balearics now outnumber those in the Canary Islands. He called for action against the criminal groups organising the crossings, describing the journeys as a human tragedy. That crackdown, he said, must go alongside a controlled, safe and effective migration system.

Catalina Cabrer, the Balearic Islands’ minister for Labour, Public Administration and Social Dialogue, called for a tougher response to irregular migration, which she said creates a pull factor. She said the regional government respects migrants who come to work and build a new life, but criticised the central government’s migration policy as failing to work properly and piling pressure on Spain’s autonomous regions.

Cabrer said the number of regulated migrants seeking work had quadrupled in two months. She added that 89.1 per cent of irregular migrants arriving in the islands had only primary education and did not speak languages useful in the Balearics, while 90 per cent of migrants were unemployed.

There is no immediate route into work, Cabrer said, because people first need support. She said that support must lead to real integration into the jobs market, while the islands’ economy should focus on skills and added value rather than simply adding more workers.

Topics: Migration · Social affairs · Police · Jobs & labour · Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com