Hidden, sleeping in the open or in temporary facilities: the reality of migrant minors in Ceuta
There are still between 3,000 and 5,000 people who entered the city illegally, of which a thousand are children
BarcelonaThe Government of Ceuta has estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 people are still in the city after last Thursday's massive arrival, which has caused an unprecedented migratory crisis. Of these, at least around 900 are minors who are in reception centers and other extraordinary resources that have been set up in the city. However, the executive of the popular Juan Jesús Vivas is aware that there are many other children who entered the city illegally on July 30 and who have not yet requested to be attended to or are hiding. They may be hiding in illegal settlements in the city, especially in the mountains, or they may not have been detected yet by the Local Police, who are responsible for transferring them to the reception centers.
"Minors cannot be used as they have been used," warned the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who again pointed to the role of mafias and asked the Moroccan government to get to the bottom of the issue to clarify the causes of this tragedy. For the moment, sources from the Ceuta executive have explained to Efe that the La Esperanza reception center, the Tarajal Nueva Esperanza warehouse, and the two spaces set up in Piniers have registered 862 minors, all of them Moroccan. Likewise, they believe that the figure may vary in the coming hours and exceed a thousand, even though some of these minors voluntarily returned to Morocco with their parents.
Meanwhile, the Local Police are responsible for locating these Moroccans who are allegedly minors in order to transfer them to the city's facilities, which is responsible for managing the main center of La Esperanza, while the Samu and Engloba associations are in charge of the provisional resources. This Monday morning, as Efe has been able to verify, many minors are around the Tarajal border, specifically in the warehouses of the industrial estate located next to the border crossing. Save the Children has already warned of the "serious risk" that some minors may fall outside the protection system in Ceuta given the increase in arrivals in recent days.
Sources from the Ministry of Youth and Childhood explain that the situation in Ceuta has been closely monitored to guarantee the rights of all unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents in the city. Furthermore, it is working to activate all mechanisms to provide a "dignified welcome," emphasize the same sources, who recall that the law establishes that reception is "binding" on all autonomous communities. The provision of new spaces and infrastructures that offer dignified first aid to these children moments after their arrival is another of the ministry's priorities. Funding allocations and extraordinary credit will be made available for this specific measure.
Protection system overwhelmed
The city's protection system is far beyond its structural capacity, according to Save the Children, as it has fewer than a hundred places and is currently attending to almost a thousand children. The organization worries about whether there are children who have not yet been identified or referred to resources, and who are on the street or in spaces that do not meet the necessary conditions to guarantee their safety and well-being.
"The priority at this time must be that no boy or girl is left without protection. All minors must be identified as soon as possible and transferred to a safe resource where they can receive specialized care and psychosocial support," states Jennifer Zuppiroli, from Save the Children. For this reason, they ask to strengthen the teams responsible for identifying minors, providing humanitarian assistance, and expediting their referral to resources, as well as enabling new reception spaces that allow for responding to current needs while transfers to the peninsula are being organized.
In this regard, Save the Children sees it as essential to accelerate the transfers of unaccompanied minors to other autonomous communities to alleviate the pressure on Ceuta's protection system and ensure that all can receive adequate care.
