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Ceuta to mainland shift
Spain has U-turned and said it will allow 500 migrant children in Ceuta to relocate to the mainland, after the majority of the estimated 70,000 people who crossed into Ceuta on 30 July returned to Morocco.
“child protection organizations to take in and care for the most vulnerable individuals — including girls — in adapted facilities on the mainland”
The transfer plan is framed around Spain’s duty of care for young, unaccompanied migrants until they reach the age of 18, and it is being coordinated through the youth ministry and the Ceuta government to avoid transferring guardianship to Spain’s regional governments.
DW reported that Spain’s Ministry of Youth and Children says the mechanism will allow "child protection organizations to take in and care for the most vulnerable individuals — including girls — in adapted facilities on the mainland" without transferring custody to regional authorities.
UNICEF Spain’s Lara Contreras said 97 of the 500 girls selected — aged 9 to 17 — have already been moved to improved facilities and will be transferred as soon as possible, while she warned that "hundreds of them are wandering the streets alone, in unsanitary conditions."
EU return stance and politics
The government’s plan arrived as the European Commission said that under EU law all of the migrants should be returned to Morocco, with Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert saying that by law all irregular migrants remaining in Ceuta should be sent back, "including unaccompanied minors".
The Guardian reported that the transfer is a sensitive political topic because several regions governed jointly by the conservative People’s party and the far-right Vox are reluctant or opposed to receiving their quota.
Rubén Pérez Correa, the secretary of state for children, has been in Ceuta since Sunday to resolve a situation in which hundreds of children are living on the street and existing on handouts from Ceuta residents, according to The Guardian.
The People’s party rejected the government plan, and Juan Bravo said in a television interview: "If Morocco has asked for the children to be returned and if Europe says the illegal immigrants should all be returned, whether children or not, what more does the government need?"
Guardianship, facilities, and numbers
InfoMigrants said Spain is working on an emergency evacuation plan to relocate 500 migrant girls from Ceuta to the Spanish mainland, with Ceuta maintaining legal guardianship so the legal process does not hinder the urgent distribution of these youths.
“protect the best interests of the child”
Euronews reported that Spain’s Ministry for Youth and Children says the plan includes a royal decree-law providing for compulsory, solidarity-based reception by all autonomous communities, or family placement, and it also considers a route allowing child-protection organisations to manage reception and care without transferring guardianship.
Euronews also said the National Police had identified and handed over to the Ceuta government 2,168 minors by Tuesday 18 August, while the same report said Elma Saiz told RNE that the issue is being addressed by Ceuta together with the Department for Children and the autonomous communities and that she insisted on the need to "protect the best interests of the child."
Diari ARA added that the Ceuta government said the ministry had not yet "asked for any transfer mechanism to be activated" and reported that 2,168 children are registered in the protection system, with about 350 girls in two public schools and about 500 continuing to sleep on the street in makeshift spaces set up by residents.
