Dozens of Moroccan Migrant Minors Flee Ceuta Center to Avoid Repatriation

The Moroccan minors at the Santa Amelia sports center in Ceuta do not want to return to Morocco. On Saturday, the tension rose a notch in the center after the national police tried to take 15 minors housed there to repatriate them to Morocco.

To read: Spain Begins Repatriation of Unaccompanied Minors to Morocco from Ceuta

As part of the operation to repatriate minors launched on Friday, the Ministry of the Interior plans to expel 150 minor migrants who arrived in Ceuta on May 17 and 18, and who were housed in the Piniers sports center and the La Esperanza center. The "vulnerable" minors, i.e. those who have claimed to have been victims of violence and degrading treatment in Morocco before fleeing to Ceuta, are not affected by this repatriation.

To read: Spain Aims to Repatriate Hundreds of Moroccan Minors from Ceuta by September

The return of the minors was agreed on the basis of the 2007 agreement between Spain and Morocco "on cooperation in the prevention of illegal immigration of unaccompanied minors, their protection and their concerted return", which requires "strict compliance with the respective national laws, the rules and principles of international law, in particular the relevant provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the optional protocols to which the two States are parties," says OKDIARIO.

To read: Spanish Ombudsman Calls for Halt to Controversial Repatriation of Moroccan Minors from Ceuta

The Ombudsman, for his part, has asked the Ministry of the Interior to suspend this repatriation operation, stating that "the procedure must be agreed after hearing the minor, and on the basis of the report of the child protection services and the public prosecutor’s office, the administration will rule on the return to his country of origin, where his relatives are located or, failing that, his stay in Spain." Organizations like Save The Children, who denounce this "illegal" collective repatriation, are also preparing to take the competent court to request the suspension of the operation.

Once repatriated, the minors are taken to a center built in Martil (Tetouan), where family reunifications are expected to take place.