They were called "the Erasmus" because they were different from the others. unaccompanied foreign minors who arrive by boat. Perhaps because they had an expensive phone or because of the stories they told. Finally, the nickname given to them by the National Police has turned out to be true because a fraud has been uncovered in Tarragona in which several parents abandoned their children so that the latter would declare themselves abandoned and could enter the protection system. At the moment, there are thirty parents arrested and 22 of these children have returned to their biological family, although the investigation is still open.

The Spanish government has already decided where and with what resources the 3,975 unaccompanied foreign minors currently in the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla awaiting a directive will be relocated. As expected, neither Catalonia nor the Basque Country will be part of this regional distribution due to "the reception efforts made so far." Instead, the majority of these young people will be relocated to Andalusia (677), Madrid (647), and the Valencian Community (571), according to sources from the Ministry of Youth and Children.

In the first two months of the year, 437 unaccompanied migrant minors arrived in Catalonia, joining the approximately 9,000 under the guardianship of the Directorate General for Children and Adolescents (DGAIA), of whom 2,400 are foreigners. These are young people who, like Ibrahima Bah and Bilal Sighaoui years ago, have risked their lives to emigrate, driven largely by the desire to help their families. "Facing the sea, I said to myself: 'death or life,'" Bah explained on Thursday, at the 25th anniversary celebration of the SDI (Detection and Intervention Service), a Barcelona City Council service that detects and supports children, adolescents, and young people over 21. to try to replace the advice or company of parents or siblings. The Barcelona City Council, like the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government), has been allocating funds to care for these young people for decades, creating places in centers and apartments and including them in benefits (the same as national minors in care) to give them a hand when they turn 18. With a lot of luck, these young people can continue to receive institutional support until they are 23. seven years before the age of emancipation.

Last week the repatriation of unaccompanied migrant children to Morocco, who had been in Ceuta for almost three months, began. The Minister of Home Affairs, Grande-Marlaska, says that they are minors who want to return to their country and that they are not expulsions but "assisted returns". The minister can use all the euphemisms he wants but he is finding it hard to pass off his actions as legal - or even fair.

Although the Spanish government had insisted that there were no minors among the migrants returned immediately at the border of Morocco with Ceuta, the Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation following the complaint of the Fundació Arrels for the case of a 16-year-old boy who swam -helped by a float made of bottles- to the beach of the autonomous city and shortly after the police accompanied him to the border to expel him. Spanish law and international law prohibit the expulsion of minors because they are part of a group with special protection that cannot be left without guardianship and, for this reason, when they arrive in a country it is the public administrations that take charge of them while their family is not located. Although the proceedings are being opened as a result of a specific case, the Public Prosecutor's Office has clarified that if other expulsions can be documented, they will also be investigated.

Melilla has experienced the fourth consecutive night of migratory pressure on its border perimeter, the first with the Spanish army deployed to reinforce surveillance and control, reports Efe. Unlike the last two nights, in which attempts to enter could be thwarted, this Thursday night part of those who have managed to approach the border perimeter at different points have been able to access the city. There is no official data on how many people have participated, but the Home Affairs Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has mentioned that around thirty have succeeded. Marlaska has assured that all of them will be "located" and "returned" to Morocco.

Vox has done it again: it has used immigrants for its populist discourse and has attracted the media spotlight at the start of the election campaign in Madrid. On this occasion, the far-right party has perpetrated a poster in which it contrasts an adorable white-haired woman with a supposed immigrant minor with her face covered, accompanied by the slogan "A mena [acronym for Menor Extranjero No Acompañado, unaccompanied foreign minor], 4,700 euros a month. Your grandmother, 426 euros a month pension". These are two simple sentences - but they are a lie.