EU Urged to Pressure Morocco on Repatriation of Migrant Minors in Ceuta

On Friday, Jordi Cañas asked the European Commission whether contacts have been made with Morocco with a view to repatriating the more than 800 minors who continue to live in reception centers or wander the streets of Ceuta, after their massive arrival last May. For the MEP, who visited the autonomous city this week to inquire about the situation of these minors, the European Commission must execute the European Parliament resolution which condemned Rabat in June for having "used minor migrants for political purposes".

To read: EU Praises Morocco’s Commitment to Readmit Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

Faced with the "passivity" of Morocco, or even the difficulty of collaborating with the Moroccan authorities for the return of the minors, Cañas has asked the EU to suspend its cooperation with Morocco, until the latter has signed a repatriation agreement for the minors and reaffirmed its commitment to respect the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"The migratory and economic blackmail suffered by Ceuta and Melilla by Rabat is not a Spanish problem but a European one, because it is also a border of the EU. Morocco has abandoned more than 800 unaccompanied minors in Spain and the EU cannot allow this situation not to be regularized," he concluded.