The head of the Madeira regional government, Miguel Albuquerque, said that the migratory crisis in Ceuta cannot serve as a pretext for a "centralist attack" against regional autonomies. Albuquerque reacted to the visit of the Minister of Internal Administration to the region, considering that the Republic's government is taking advantage of the situation to reinforce control over the islands.
The Madeiran leader stressed that the region has always collaborated with the State in managing migratory flows and that it does not accept having its management capacity questioned. He defended that the competencies of autonomous regions must be respected and that any revision of the migratory management model must be done with the involvement of regional governments.
The Ceuta crisis, which occurred in May 2021, created additional pressure on Atlantic migratory routes. Albuquerque warned that island regions cannot be penalized by migratory policies decided without their participation, calling for a shared management model that respects the territorial specificity of the islands.
