Moroccan Teens Discard IDs at Sea in Risky Bid for New Life in Spain

By their gesture, these young Moroccan migrants seem to be saying "goodbye" to their homeland. In the video posted on social networks last weekend, one after the other, several boys could be seen showing their Moroccan identity card to the camera, before throwing it into the Mediterranean, reports El Diario de Sevilla.

Others throw their Attijariwafa Bank withdrawal cards, a Moroccan bank, which become useless, especially since Moroccan bank cards are only valid for Morocco.

For these "harragas", throwing their identity documents into the water can pose a problem, but also solve another one. Indeed, "becoming undocumented" for migrants who have not reached the age of majority is a problem.

But this is resolved upon their arrival in Spain where they must undergo a test consisting of an X-ray of the wrist, in order to determine their age. However, the absence of an identity card also has an advantage: it makes it even more difficult to locate the parents in Morocco, given the likely repatriation operations of the migrants.

The landing of foreign minors on the Spanish coast has taken on an alarming scale in recent years. On August 29, during the debate in Congress on the "Open Arms" ship, the Vice-President of the Spanish Government, Carmen Calvo, stated that 14,000 foreign minors are currently supervised in Spain by the autonomous communities.

For its part, the 2019 Report of the Office of the Attorney General, published at the beginning of the week, indicates that the increase in the arrival of minors by sea has been "spectacular" in recent years, especially in Andalusia where 62% are Moroccans and the others come from various sub-Saharan countries including Guinea-Conakry and Mali.

The same source indicates that these data should be added to the entries of minors crossing the borders of Ceuta and Melilla on foot or hidden in motor vehicles.