The court grants legal documents to a minor expelled from a foster care center due to his age: "I knew I hadn't lied"
The TSJC criticizes the fact that he was considered to be of legal age, despite having a valid passport that stated that he was not.
BadalonaIt took three years for the courts to recognize that Gambian Saynei Kanteh was indeed a minor, after the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office ruled that he was over eighteen and therefore no longer entitled to public protection. He was immediately removed from the guardianship of the Directorate General for Child Welfare (DGAIA, now the DGPPIA) and expelled from the center where he lived. "I knew he wasn't lying, that I was seventeen, and I trusted that sooner or later..." I would have the papers"," he states.
Kanteh's case is very common among the unaccompanied minors from GambiaThe Spanish authorities do not recognize the validity of their passports, even though, legally, if it cannot be proven that the document has been falsified, it is valid for all purposes. In reality, the boys are subjected to age tests, which have been deemed unreliable by numerous scientific studies, excluding them from the guardianship protection system without having been granted a residence permit or the benefit for former wards to those who have the right to facilitate their emancipation.
Age proofs
Kanteh's wrist was measured and his teeth examined by the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office, ultimately determining—erroneously, as has been proven—that he was of legal age, when in reality he was seventeen and, therefore, should have been under the protection of the DGAIA (Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care). The young man filed an appeal with Albert Parés, the lawyer from the organization Noves Vies, who criticized the DGAIA's "double negligence" in this case because, in addition to accessing the age verification tests, they failed to notify him of the results, as required by law, leaving the minor defenseless. The Administrative Court of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, however, upheld Parés's arguments and overturned the DGAIA's decision, confirming that the boy was a minor at the time of his residence permit application. The judges applied the Supreme Court's doctrine, which recognizes that rights acquired during minority extend into the future, and considered that, although late and at twenty years old, the rights that were taken from him must be restored retroactively.
Kaneth has just turned twenty, so the documentation, which will allow him to reside and work for the next two years, has been a great birthday present. "The papers give me strength and Now it's time to work"Justice has been done, and I deserve a better life after everything I've been through to get here," he says, summarizing his state of mind in the garden of the Sant Jeroni de la Murtra monastery in Badalona, where he lives under the care of the Catalunya-América Foundation.
When he was kicked out of the juvenile detention center, he remembers "crying and crying a lot." With nowhere to turn, he found himself alone, wondering what he had done wrong to end up back at square one, just like when in 2020 he embarked on a migration journey to Europe, drawn by the success stories and photos of happy moments that his friends who had gone before him sent him. Now he laughs when he recalls thinking that this was the life he wanted for himself and that if they had made it, why couldn't he?
Without revealing his plans to anyone, and with some money he had "taken" from his parents, he set off. He was fourteen years old and traveled from Gambia through Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Algeria, and Morocco, where he boarded a boat to the Canary Islands. With the Canary Islands centers full, he was quickly transferred to Barcelona, where he was placed in a center until he was expelled in August 2023.
A year and a half on the streets
From there, he spent a year and a half on the streets of Barcelona and Premià de Mar. "It's very hard, very hard, nobody can imagine it," he says, and insists that he "never" committed any crimes or had any further problems with the police. Until a few months ago, when he entered the San Jerónimo de la Murtra foundation, where he has found a place of mental respite after so many years traveling the world and the opportunity to make a "life change."
Parés emphasizes that there is still a remote possibility that the Immigration Office will appeal, but even if they don't, the granting of residency "can take so many months" that they might opt to have the young man apply for the extraordinary regularization process, which, in principle, will begin in April.
Kaneth is the eldest of three siblings and hopes they won't try to imitate him. "No, no, I don't want them to go through all this," he emphasizes, adding that he's confident that, finally, "luck" will smile on him and he'll be able to become a "cook or garden designer" to help the parents and "have a better future." He says he's certain that, given his background, if he ever has money, he'll help "those who live on the streets."