The Diplomat
The head of the Contentious-Administrative Court number 1 in Ceuta issued an order yesterday to “suspend” the repatriation of unaccompanied Moroccan migrant minors to Morocco for 72 hours.
The General State Administration and the Autonomous City of Ceuta will have those three days to provide documentation to validate the way in which these transfers are being carried out and whether or not they comply with Spanish legislation.
The beneficiaries of the resolution are nine minors out of a group of twelve, on whose behalf the Asociación Coordinadora de Barrios para el Seguimiento de Menores y jóvenes and the Fundación Raíces filed a request for urgent precautionary measures.
The order, whose full content has been accessed by Europa Press, recalls that “Spanish legislation only allows the return of adults who are illegally in our country, without the processing of the corresponding administrative file, when dealing with foreigners who have already been expelled and contravene the prohibition of entry into Spain and those who intend to enter the country illegally”.
The magistrate who issued this ruling is the same one who last Sunday concluded that there was no place for the adoption of provisional measures of the same type that eight minors had requested, as all of them had already been transferred to Morocco when she was able to issue her ruling.
The United Nations had only yesterday asked the Spanish government to suspend the repatriation of “A. C. and 9 other children” from Ceuta and their transfer to a child protection centre while the case is pending before the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The head of the Human Rights Treaties Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations, Ibrahim Salama, thus responded to the request that the NGOs Save the Children, Andalucía Acoge and Gentium made to the international body on this issue.
The Ceuta Public Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday opposed the repatriation of migrant minors ordered by the Ministry of the Interior, alleging that the order sent by the department headed by Fernández Grande-Marlaska did not include the procedures required by Spanish law in this matter, nor was it signed.
For her part, the second vice-president and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, conveyed to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, Podemos’ dissatisfaction regarding the return of minors, according to the secretary of Organisation of the purple party, Lilith Verstrynge.
The Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 reiterated its rejection of the Ceuta repatriations in a new letter sent yesterday to the Ministry of the Interior, according to Europa Press sources from the department headed by Ione Belarra. The letter was sent after the judge’s order suspending the expulsions was made public.
The letter also asks Fernando Grande-Marlaska’s department to cease the operation until a protocol is properly defined that establishes two fundamental conditions: that the minors who wish to return to their families can do so in safe conditions; and that those who do not wish to return can stay in Spain in dignified reception conditions.
The Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, defended the “assisted return” of Moroccan minors who are not vulnerable and who have shown their desire to return to the neighbouring country in accordance with a procedure signed with Rabat in 2007, which, according to him, is being carried out in compliance with the law, following a detailed study and at the proposal of the social services in Ceuta.
Grande-Marlaska pointed out that there is a prior “detailed study” of each minor, carried out by the Ceuta services dedicated to the protection of minors, and that “evidently” there are also guarantees that they will return to their families, thanks to the “direct communications” between the Ceuta services and the meetings with the authorities of the Kingdom of Morocco.
Despite the criticism from Unidas Podemos, the minister assured that “the entire government” is working with the “same unfailing desire to guarantee the best interests of minors” by encouraging the return to Morocco in those cases in which the social services in Ceuta accredit that the minor does not have roots in Spain and that they are not vulnerable.
The PP’s deputy secretary for Social Policy, Ana Pastor, called on the government to comply with the Law on Foreigners in the return of unaccompanied minors and denounced a “clamorous lack of coordination” within the government.
“The President of the Government should go out and bring some order, at least among his own people”, she said, stressing that each minister “says one thing” and there is no agreement on migration issues.
