The Spanish government is preparing to appeal to the national Constitutional Court against a measure recently approved by the regional administration of the Canary Islands regarding shelter for minor migrants.

The move comes after the Minister of Territorial Policies, Ángel Víctor Torres, received advice from the Council of State that the new measures might represent a "violation" of the rights of foreign minors.

The regulation, already suspended by the regional Court of the Canaries as a precautionary measure, increases the administrative and bureaucratic hurdles facing minor migrants before they are taken into care by the region.

The local government of the archipelago had said it could not take care of all the very young foreigners arriving, and it had asked for the cooperation of Madrid and of the other autonomous Spanish communities.

Also read: Spain: Defense ministry provides two sites for minor migrants on Canary Islands

Torres: 'Autonomous community must comply with jurisdictions'

"An autonomous community, as far as unaccompanied minors are concerned, cannot fail to abide some of its responsibilities and cannot confer others to the State" noted Torres, reading some passages of the advice expressed by the Council of State.

Furthermore, he added that the objective of the central government is to convince a sufficient number of parliamentarians to approve a reform that would make it binding for the Spanish regions to share the responsibility of sheltering minor migrants.

This reform was recently rejected by Congress, with particular opposition coming from the People's Party (which in the Canary Islands is part of the government coalition).

According to the latest figures from Spain's interior ministry, so far this year a total of 26,700 migrants have reached the Canary Islands, among them an unspecified number of minors.

Also read: Spain: Canaries renew call for broader distribution of unaccompanied minors