Spanish Prosecutors Launch Probe into Repatriation of Moroccan Migrant Children

The State Prosecutor’s Office and that of Ceuta are unaware of the minors’ repatriation plan, let alone the agreement between Spain and Morocco, say judicial sources to Heraldo.

To read: Spain Begins Mass Repatriation of Unaccompanied Moroccan Minors from Ceuta

In accordance with the agreement between Morocco and the Spanish Ministry of the Interior which sets a repatriation of 15 minors per day, a second group of fifteen minors was repatriated this Saturday, after the one transported on Friday, confirm police sources, who specify that these minors, from the Santa Amelia center, will be handed over to the Moroccan authorities of the General Directorate of Childhood.

To read: Spain Begins Repatriation of Unaccompanied Minors to Morocco from Ceuta

Morocco will then be responsible for "tracing the families of the minors, carrying out family reunifications and, failing that, taking them into care in a reception center," say sources from the Ceuta government delegation. Despite the royal instructions of King Mohammed VI to his Ministers of the Interior and Foreign Affairs with a view to a definitive settlement of the situation of unaccompanied minors in Europe, Rabat was not playing the game for a rapid repatriation of migrants, deplores the same source.

To read: Spanish Ombudsman Calls for Halt to Controversial Repatriation of Moroccan Minors from Ceuta

The second vice-president of Ceuta, Carlos Rontomé, for his part, assured that the "vulnerable minors" who have suffered some form of ill-treatment or harassment in Morocco before their arrival in Ceuta, "are not affected by this operation". "It is not a question of repatriating all the minors at once, but by groups of fifteen. We therefore consider that the repatriations are carried out with all the guarantees," Rontomé reacted following the request of the Ombudsman and children’s rights organizations such as Save the Children and UNICEF to suspend this repatriation. "It is up to the Ministry of the Interior to determine the form of repatriation," he concluded.