Spain and Morocco Discuss Repatriation of Unaccompanied Moroccan Minors from Melilla

According to the Euro Weekly News website, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska would have revealed the existence of consultations between the Moroccan and Spanish parties regarding the repatriation to Morocco of unaccompanied Moroccan minors in Melilla.

The media specifies: "Grande-Marlaski stressed that Spain and Morocco were working on a formula involving all Spanish institutions and taking into account the interests of the child."

The minister would also have stated that the Moroccan authorities were the first to be concerned about the fate of the minors. The minister would have stated, still according to the same source: "The Moroccan authorities want the children to return to their own country and that they provide them with protection, either within their family or at the expense of the State. Morocco does not want them to be uprooted."

These unaccompanied Moroccan minors in Melilla are not a novelty, according to the minister. This affair "is not from the day before yesterday," he stressed. He would have been aware of it three or four years ago, during a visit to the enclave.

It should be noted that very recently the president of the autonomous city Juan José Imbroda, demanded that the 1,000 Moroccan minors in Melilla be repatriated immediately and that this request was rejected by the Spanish government.