Spain plans to transfer about 500 unaccompanied children from its North African enclave of Ceuta to the mainland, after tens of thousands of migrants recently surged across the border by land and sea. Officials at the Ministry of Youth and Children told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday that the provisional figure covers the children it considers most vulnerable, following the mass crossing of people from Morocco on July 30. Migration Minister Elma Saiz told public broadcaster RNE that the relocated children would be placed under the care of child protection organisations on the mainland.
The recent influx of more than 70,000 migrants left Ceuta’s child-protection system at more than 4,600 percent of its intended capacity, the enclave’s government said. Madrid allocates Ceuta an ordinary reception capacity of 29 places, but shelters are now holding about 1,350 children, RTVE reported. Under Madrid’s relocation plan, the children would be spread across Spain’s autonomous regions, placed in foster care or reunited with relatives.
Ceuta’s government has accepted the transfers as an “extraordinary measure”, Spanish newspaper El Pais reports, but maintains that deporting everyone who entered irregularly, including minors, remains a “priority objective”. Sira Rego, the youth and children minister in Spain’s pro-immigration government, rejected talk of deporting the children, calling it “outrageous”. The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, has warned that hundreds of children in Ceuta face “insecurity and unsanitary conditions”.
After tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, the enclave’s mayor-president, Juan Jesus Vivas, said at least 100 died, many from drowning or being crushed by a breakwater as they swam to the enclave. The transfer of the children to the mainland has drawn criticism from Spain’s opposition People’s Party (PP).
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