Spain Grapples with Surge of Unaccompanied Moroccan Minors, Raising Concerns

These official data differ from those of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). According to the UN agency, around 5,500 Moroccan minors have managed to cross the Strait and are on the streets of the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, in the Andalusia region or in the north, in the capital, Madrid.

Left to their own devices or exploited by adults, many of these Moroccan minors commit criminal acts. The Secretariat of State for Security Affairs has also conducted a study on the link between illegal immigration and crime in the Iberian Peninsula.

The report of this study indicates that Moroccan minors represent about 25% of the inmates incarcerated in Spanish prisons and rank first. The authors of the study add that they are mostly involved in drug trafficking and theft, rape or even prostitution. Nearly 3 out of 10 minors have already committed at least one criminal act, the study reveals.

According to experts, this high crime rate among young immigrants is due to the laxity of the authorities, the privileges that the Spanish penal code grants to minors.