Spain to allow 500 children in Ceuta to go to mainland in immigration U-turn

The Spanish government has U-turned and said it will allow 500 migrant children in Ceuta to relocate to the mainland.

The majority of the estimated 70,000 people who crossed into Ceuta – a Spanish territory on the coast of north Africa – on 30 July have returned to Morocco. However, under Spanish law, the state has a duty of care to young, unaccompanied migrants until they reach the age of 18.

The transfer of the children to the Spanish mainland is a sensitive political topic as several regions governed jointly by the conservative People’s party and the far-right Vox are reluctant or opposed to receiving their quota. To minimise conflict, the youth ministry, in coordination with the Ceuta government, is devising an urgent plan under which NGOs and child protection agencies take charge of the most vulnerable children, girls in particular, without transferring their guardianship to Spain’s regional governments.

News of the government’s plan came only hours after the European Commission said that under EU law all of the migrants should be returned to Morocco. Asked to clarify, the commission’s spokesperson on internal affairs, Markus Lammert, said that by law all irregular migrants remaining in Ceuta should be sent back, “including unaccompanied minors”. But The People’s party has rejected the government plan, saying the best place for the children is with their families.

The mixed messages partly derive from the fact the latest European pact on immigration has not yet been incorporated into Spanish law and therefore Spain’s own legislation on the treatment of unaccompanied minors remains in force.