Dear ,

I am writing to express my concern about the treatment migrants and asylum seekers face in the Canary Islands and to request your immediate assistance in ensuring that they are treated in a fair and humane way.

I was particularly disturbed to learn about the terrible conditions of detention for migrants and asylum seekers in the old airport installations of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. Migrants detained in these facilities suffer from extreme overcrowding and are housed in unhygienic quarters where there is poor ventilation and no access to direct sunlight or fresh air. Moreover, detainees are not permitted communication with the outside world and have little meaningful access to lawyers.

Courts are failing to provide meaningful and individualized review of migrants' and asylum seekers' cases. People who have fled their countries of origin to escape persecution often have no meaningful opportunity to seek asylum upon arrival in the Canary Islands. In addition, it appears that at every step migrants and asylum seekers arriving to the islands have little access to information about their rights in a language they can understand.

I am concerned that this treatment violates national and international law on detention conditions and the procedural rights of migrants and asylum seekers. I respectfully request that you improve conditions for migrants and asylum seekers in the Canary Islands. Listed below are some of the immediate measures that should be taken:

• Find immediate solutions to the problem of severe overcrowding in the airport facilities, particularly in Fuerteventura, including the use of alternatives to detention;

• Improve the daily conditions in these facilities, including the level of hygiene and access to proper medical care for all detainees;

• Grant detainees access to telephones and personal visits;

• Permit representatives of nongovernmental and inter-governmental organizations to visit migrants and asylum seekers in these facilities so that they may provide services and monitor conditions of detention;

• Provide all arriving migrants and asylum seekers information on their rights under Spanish and international law in languages they can understand (e.g., Arabic, English and French);

• Ensure that migrants and asylum seekers have meaningful access to legal and interpretation services, and that they have the opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of their detention and deportation in a judicial proceeding; and

• Ensure that migrants and asylum seekers wishing to apply for asylum have the means to do so.

I thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,