At least five girls younger than 14 were treated at Ceuta University Hospital in alleged rape cases following the late-July arrival of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco, according to local reports, as medical personnel described mounting pressure on shelters and health services.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
At least five girls under age 14 were treated at Ceuta University Hospital following alleged sexual assaults after a massive influx of migrants entered the Spanish territory from neighboring Morocco in late July, according to local newspaper El Pueblo de Ceuta.
The girls are believed to have arrived in Ceuta during a coordinated mass crossing on the final day of July, when approximately 72,000 migrants reportedly entered the Spanish exclave within a 24-hour period.
Spanish authorities said roughly 70,000 people were subsequently returned to Morocco within days, although local reports indicated that thousands may have remained in the city.
The situation was particularly difficult for migrants younger than 18. Unaccompanied minors generally have a greater opportunity to seek asylum in European Union countries, but Ceuta’s limited shelter capacity reportedly left some children without accommodation and living on the streets.
Susana Ascaso, an emergency physician at Ceuta University Hospital, said the hospital had handled multiple alleged sexual assaults involving migrant girls.
Ascaso said there had been “cases of rape of migrant girls” who were living on Ceuta’s streets “because there isn’t enough room for them in the children’s shelters.”
“It’s not that they don’t want to help them, but rather that there isn’t enough space for them,” Ascaso said. “The population that has arrived is mostly made up of young, strong adults. Therefore, we are having many problems.”
The hospital was already struggling with a large volume of patients during the initial border crossing, according to Ascaso.
She said migrants arrived with injuries caused “by the border fences, wounds from rocks in the sea, and shoulder dislocations.”
Nearly 100 migrants are believed to have drowned while attempting the short sea crossing between Morocco and Ceuta during the 24-hour influx.
Nearly two weeks later, Ascaso said pressure on the hospital had not eased and that the number of migrants seeking treatment had instead continued to increase.
She said “patients are arriving with diseases that have the potential to become epidemics.”
“We don’t know if people are arriving with tuberculosis, hepatitis, or other types of diseases that, as of today, we also won’t be able to detect,” Ascaso said. “These are health risks for our population that we are assuming and that we cannot control. In the future, we will be able to know if all this has had consequences for the population.”
The reports of alleged sexual assaults involving children emerged as thousands of Ceuta residents demonstrated over the weekend, calling on the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the European Union to strengthen border protections and prevent another mass crossing.
The protest was described as bipartisan and cross-faith. The supplied report also stated that around nine residents of the Spanish-controlled North African territory participated in the demonstration calling for stronger border controls.
The July influx followed a Spanish Supreme Court decision in June concerning migrants arriving by sea.
The ruling found that authorities could not immediately return migrants who reached Spanish territory by water. Critics argued that the decision created a loophole in Ceuta because migrants could enter the sea from the Moroccan side of the border and then reach Spanish territory a short distance farther along the coastline.
The crossings also occurred as Spain’s government pursued a broad amnesty program for illegal immigrants already living in the country.
The initiative seeks to regularize the status of upwards of 1 million people this year.
Critics of the policy have argued that the amnesty could encourage additional migrants to attempt to reach European Union territory.
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