The Spanish government is considering transferring 500 migrant children from Ceuta to the mainland

MadridThe Ministry of Youth and Childhood is working with the government of Ceuta to transfer up to 500 unaccompanied migrant girls from the autonomous city to the mainland, according to ministry sources. This approach is part of a comprehensive plan to welcome unaccompanied migrant boys and girls who are in Ceuta. Some of these children (approximately half a thousand) continue to sleep on the streets twenty days after fleeing Morocco, in spaces improvised by the residents of Ceuta due to the collapse of institutional reception centers.

The Ministry of the Interior has raised the number of registered unaccompanied minors in Ceuta to 2,168. For all of them, a plan is being worked on that includes binding and solidarity-based reception by the autonomous communities, meaning the mandatory distribution of minors who cannot be reunited. But also family reception and other formulas that allow for faster reception, explain those from Sira Rego's ministry.

One of these formulas includes a way for child protection organizations to take care of the reception and care of the most vulnerable profiles, including girls, with resources adapted to the peninsula and without the need to transfer guardianship to the autonomous communities, which are the ones with the competencies over the reception of unaccompanied migrant minors. "At this moment, this avenue is being urgently worked on for a specific number of minors, which has been estimated at approximately 500 [girls], although it may vary during the process," they explain from the Ministry of Childhood and Youth.

The priority, as is usually the case, is the family reunification of minors in their country of origin with their parents. A specialized team from the Ministry of Childhood has moved to Ceuta permanently to help speed up the procedures. These include social educators, psychologists, and pedagogues, among other profiles. From the Federation of Entities with Emancipation Projects (FEPA), they had already pointed out to ARA that this assessment "could be carried out by other communities. The entities [in Ceuta] are overwhelmed," warned its president, Ferran Rodríguez, at the time.

In at this moment there are about 350 children hosted in two public schools in Ceuta and for whom the autonomous city government and the ministry must find an alternative space before the start of the school year. These were the first spaces made available due to the collapse of institutional reception centers. Other children continue in places improvised by the residents of Ceuta, such as the sports center in the La Reina neighborhood, on the outskirts of the city.