He abandons his child and then tries to flee to Morocco

The case came to light last Friday when the young boy presented himself, alone and distraught, at the Red Cross offices in Telde to ask for help. Taken care of by the Juvenile Brigade, he revealed that he had arrived legally by plane with his father on December 15. The latter would then have abandoned him, taking care to confiscate his identity documents, before planning his return to Morocco.

Thanks to the airport’s security recordings and passenger lists, the investigators quickly identified the parent. A surveillance system made it possible to intercept him on December 19, as he was about to board a flight to Marrakech. Presented before the duty judge, he was placed in pre-trial detention for the offense of abandoning a minor, while his son was placed in a protection center.

This modus operandi, which consists of using the legal air route to leave a minor on European territory, seems to be multiplying. This is the second similar case in less than a month in the Canary Islands. At the end of November, the Tenerife police had already arrested a man who had arrived from Casablanca with his child. The minor had presented himself at the police station claiming to have arrived by patera (makeshift boat), a lie quickly uncovered by the authorities who had traced his entry via the Tenerife Sur airport. His father had been arrested as he was trying to reach Seville.