The details of the journey that brought them from home to Catalonia are not topics that unaccompanied migrant children like to discuss. It is difficult for them to recall the beatings, the robberies, the violence inflicted upon them along the way, and in many cases, this silence extends to the human rights violations they suffer upon arrival in Europe. "Don't ask me about the boat," many of these young people plead, often admitting they had no idea of all the difficulties they would encounter along the way. Data and reports on these situations are scarce, but the Ficat Foundation and Pompeu Fabra University, together with the Casal dels Infants (Children's Home), offer a snapshot of how they have been treated on their journey.

A young woman who was formerly under the guardianship of the Generalitat (Catalan government) has had to wait up to five years to receive her orphan's pension payments in her account.former DGAIA –currently converted into DGPPIA– saved until reaching the age of majority. The young woman is now twenty-three and has suddenly received 15,000 euros, but hers is not the only case of unjustified delays in this group of young people.

Bakary and Lassana were minors, and the Catalan government (Generalitat) caused them to end up on the streets by claiming they were adults. Now, the courts have ruled in favor of the two Gambian boys. The age tests carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office to determine their age, which led the former Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) to expel them from children's centers, were invalid. Lassana and Bakary's are just two cases. But there are many more scattered throughout the region. In the city of Girona, there are already two other court rulings, and in La Garrotxa, for example, there have been about ten in recent months.

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.

Parliament on Tuesday set up a commission of inquiry into irregularities at the DGAIA (Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care) between 2011 and 2025, which the House of Representatives unanimously approved in July. Following a trickle of media reports about the agency's poor performance, benefits improperly paid to young people who were formerly in care, and the maintenance of ghost squares In centers, the PSC, ERC, and Comuns promoted the creation of the commission, chaired by Socialist MP Jordi Riba and with Republican Anna Balsera as vice-president. In the distribution of positions on the table, Junts has been assigned the secretariat, which is held by Maria Àngels Plans. In principle, the deputies will have to present their conclusions before the end of the year.

The Barnahus, the comprehensive services that the Generalitat (Catalan Government) launched for minor victims of sexual violence, are severely understaffed. Of the twenty-six professionals working in the fourteen homes across Catalonia, only six remain in their positions, while the remaining positions are either vacant or the new staff has not yet been trained. This situation is causing delays in child care and an overload of work for the professionals who remain.

The Prosecutor's Office has asked the Court of Auditors to open an investigation into the scandal of the extinct General Directorate of Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA). The objective, as has been advanced The National and sources from the Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed to ARA, is to clarify whether the agency dependent on the Department of Social Rights incurred "possible accounting liability" for irregularities in the payment of economic and housing benefits to young people who were formerly in care. All this, after the Audit Office detected more than 167 million unduly paid in the set of benefits between 2016 and 2022. Of these, 4.7 million corresponded to the undue benefits for young people who were formerly in care, which the Government has approved condone This Tuesday, a decision agreed upon between the PSC, ERC, and Comuns.

Shortly before turning 18, Nico (a pseudonym) applied for the emancipation benefit that young people who have left care are entitled to when they reach the age of majority to ease their transition into adulthood, considering that most lack the emotional or financial support of their families. The process took more than a year, to the point that, with no other source of income, he had to put his studies on hold and go to work.

Amid the restructuring process of the new Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA), the families—around fifty, mostly single-parent families—of minors under the radar of the Department of Social Rights are demanding to be heard. Members of the Assembly of Broken Families for the DGAIA, a group that claims to have suffered institutional abuse and arbitrary separations from their children, asked this Friday the Ombudsman's deputy for children to intercede on their behalf to meet with the regional ministry. Government sources confirm they have not received a formal request for a meeting from the group, but they open the door to "any contribution" that seeks to improve the system.

They say they are in the reserve, that they have taken the summer as a "break" before accepting a new foster child who, for various reasons, cannot live with their parents. Josep Sala and Esther Bertran are teachers who during the 1990s had taken in children from Bosnia and the Sahara in the summer, and who, once retired, invest time, effort, and enthusiasm in taking in children under the guardianship of the general management of the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA)).

The Department of Social Rights and Inclusion has described as a "cordial" meeting held this Wednesday by the regional minister, Mònica Martínez Bravo, with five spokespersons for the young people who have been placed in care and whom the Generalitat is demanding to be treated. return between 12,000 and 36,000 euros for alleged "improper payments". At the meeting, which took place early this morning in Parliament, the minister apologized for all the suffering and commotion caused to the group by sending the letters and also expressed her willingness to "support" them in the process of providing the required documentation within the ten-day period. For her part, the ombudsman has requested approval for the forgiveness of these debts, as was already done with the recipients of the guaranteed citizen income.

Still reeling from the shock, a group of young people who had been placed in care gathered this Monday in front of the Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA), which replaces the DGAIA, to denounce the "defenselessness" they face due to the claim for the return of thousands of euros for alleged improper payments of benefits. In some cases, this would mean returning more than 36,000 euros..

More than a hundred young people who were formerly under the care of the Generalitat (Catalan government) have complained of feeling like the scapegoat for poor management by the administration and for the Audit Office's criticism of the €167 million in social benefits paid to people who no longer met the requirements. As reported by ARA, the Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) has begun to investigate the matter. Send hundreds of these children messages demanding thousands of euros for "undue non-payments" and gives them ten days to present their allegations. These amounts exceed 10,000 euros, and in many cases even 30,000.

A new one DGPPIA (the acronym for the General Directorate for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents, which replaces the DGAIA)) less privatized and with greater participation by workers in centers for children under the care of the Generalitat (Catalan government). These were two of the demands raised this Tuesday by the CGT and CATAC unions at a rally outside the institution's headquarters. They also denounced the reform plans presented by the Ministry of Social Rights and Inclusion as nothing more than "a smokescreen" to keep things as they are. The event brought together fifty educators, one day before Minister Mònica Martínez Bravo appears before a parliamentary committee to explain the changes to the system.