Moroccan Girl, 12, Falsely Claims Solo Swim to Spanish Enclave Ceuta

The little girl presented herself last Saturday to the Ceuta police and told the agents that she was Algerian and that she had swam alone from Morocco. A statement that surprised the agents, given the physical condition of the minor. Nevertheless, they activated the protocol and transferred the girl to a minor center in the autonomous city, reports El Confidencial.

Myriam (pseudonym) lives with seven other minors in an apartment. Feeling confident, she confided to the other girls that her parents paid for her transport to Ceuta and that she has a first cousin minor who is also staying in a center. She also admitted to them that she is not Algerian, as she had made the agents believe, but Moroccan, originally from Chefchaouen, a city in the Rif located 140 kilometers from Ceuta.

The girl adds that she was ordered to give false information about her itinerary in order not to betray the smugglers who helped her cross the border. The Ceuta police seem to have an idea of the migration route taken by Myriam to enter the city. They assume that the 12-year-old girl was driven by her parents to Fnideq, a Moroccan city located less than three kilometers from Ceuta, then was hidden in a double-bottom vehicle to cross the border.

The police estimate that Myriam’s parents paid around 5,000 euros for her trip to Ceuta. Very few girls immigrate illegally to Spain. Currently, there are only eight girls in the minor centers, or 1.55% of the total. Myriam’s case and that of other minors does not seem to be linked to child trafficking, but rather to the will of certain Moroccan families to support their children who wish to immigrate.

Since the beginning of the year, 820 minors have entered Ceuta, almost all of them by swimming. Myriam joins the 515 minors under guardianship in the city, 442 of whom are housed in municipal centers and 73 on the run. In total, 2,162 migrants, mostly Moroccans, have arrived in the autonomous city between January and mid-October, an increase of 149% compared to the same period in 2023.