Spanish Court Declares Ceuta Migrant Child Deportations Illegal

In a report addressed to the Contentious Chamber of the National Court, Prosecutor Manuel Campoy stressed that the return to Morocco of the minors, initiated by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ceuta Executive, is "null and void". "None of the actions required by Spanish legislation have been carried out before the return to Morocco of unaccompanied foreign minors who arrived en masse in Ceuta on May 17 and 18. The established procedures have not been followed," the public prosecutor’s office specified.

To read: Spanish Court Upholds Protection for Unaccompanied Moroccan Minors

The Ceuta court had suspended these returns organized on the basis of the 2007 agreement with Morocco, considering that the procedure laid down by law for these cases was not respected, recalls ABC. After this court decision, the President of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, met at La Moncloa to correct the situation and repatriate these minors according to the procedures provided for. In total, 45 minors had already been repatriated to Morocco through the Tarajal border.