Undocumented Minors Face Abuse and Inhumane Conditions in Melilla Detention Centers

Living in misery and humiliation within these centers, the young Moroccans are subjected to a slave regime by the authorities, writes the daily Assabah. This situation has prompted human rights defenders, both in Nador and Melilla, to request a hearing before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Council of Human Rights, and to prepare letters to the Moroccan and Spanish governments to denounce the humiliating practices to which Moroccan adolescents are subjected in the city’s youth centers.

The dormitories of the centers are in the form of hangars, where dozens of rusty iron beds are lined up, then dirty mattresses without blankets or pillows. More than 75 Moroccan minors are locked up in each dormitory room with nauseating odors. The toilets, devoid of hot water and showers, have been transformed into garbage dumps.

The newspaper adds that more than 700 Moroccan minors are placed in the three centers of the city, including 50 girls. Some minors, discouraged by the inhumane living conditions of the centers, prefer to run away and find themselves "homeless", exposed to sexual harassment and violence. The Spanish authorities have recorded several cases of sexual harassment, of which Moroccan minors, in particular, are victims.