Spain’s youth minister says most unaccompanied minors who entered Ceuta during July’s mass border crossing are expected to remain in Spain, while the government pursues individual family-reunification cases with Morocco and opposition parties demand faster returns and age verification.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

Most unaccompanied migrant minors who entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta during July’s unprecedented mass border crossing are expected to remain in Spain rather than return to Morocco, according to Youth and Childhood Minister Sira Rego.

Rego said Monday that Spanish authorities will continue examining possible family reunifications with Morocco but that the legal protections afforded to minors mean many of those currently in Ceuta are likely to be transferred to reception facilities on the Spanish mainland.

“Most of the minors want to stay in Spain, and they will stay because there is a law that protects them,” Rego said during an interview with Cadena SER. “In our country, all children are equal before the law.”

Her comments mark a further shift from the immediate aftermath of the July 30-31 crossing, when returning migrants to Morocco was presented as a central government objective.

More than 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta during the late-July crisis, according to Spanish figures cited by Reuters. Most subsequently returned to Morocco, but thousands remained in the enclave as local reception systems struggled to accommodate them.

The number of unaccompanied minors has changed substantially as authorities have identified and registered more children.

About 1,100 unaccompanied minors remained in Ceuta in early August, according to Reuters. By mid-August, humanitarian organizations said approximately 1,500 had been formally identified and entered the child-protection system, with additional unidentified minors still living outside official facilities.

By Sept. 21, Ceuta authorities had registered approximately 2,200 minors, while Rego’s ministry estimated another 500 to 700 remained on the streets. Other government estimates placed the latter figure between 700 and 1,000.

Morocco has publicly said it is willing to cooperate in returning unaccompanied minors.

In August, Morocco’s state news agency reported that King Mohammed VI had directed the Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries to help identify minors and facilitate their repatriation. Moroccan authorities have also urged Spain to accelerate the process.

But Spanish law does not provide for automatic or collective deportation of unaccompanied children.

Article 35 of Spain’s immigration law requires authorities to examine each minor’s family circumstances before deciding whether repatriation is appropriate. Officials must obtain information concerning the child’s family, hear the minor when appropriate and receive reports from child-protection authorities and prosecutors before determining whether the child should return to the country of origin, reunite with family elsewhere or remain in Spain.

Rego said the first family-reunification files involving children who arrived in the July crossing would be completed within days, while acknowledging difficulties obtaining cooperation from Moroccan authorities.

“No, I think the majority want to stay in Spain,” Rego said when asked whether most would be reunited with their families in Morocco. “And they are going to stay.”

She argued that the government has an obligation to protect minors regardless of nationality and defended transferring children from overcrowded Ceuta facilities to mainland Spain.

Rego also accused political opponents of using the children for partisan purposes.

“I will not renounce exercising our responsibility with empathy. I find the trivialization of evil appalling. We must champion empathy, not as mere feel-goodism, but as a fundamental principle of democratic commitment,” she said.

The minister specifically criticized resistance from political leaders who have objected to transferring minors to their regions.

Spain has already used mainland transfers during previous migration emergencies, including the redistribution of unaccompanied minors from the Canary Islands.

Rego’s position has drawn sharp criticism from VOX, which advocates stricter immigration controls and broader repatriation.

VOX national spokesman José Antonio Fúster said Monday that Spain should reconsider its repatriation arrangements with Morocco if Rabat does not accept the return of migrants who crossed into Ceuta.

He also called for more extensive age testing of migrants claiming to be minors.

“With all due respect, go to the unaccompanied minors’ centres and see if they aren’t children. Don’t call them children; it’s a mistake,” Fúster said, arguing that officials should determine whether individuals claiming minor status are actually under 18.

He said it is possible to distinguish “the difference between a child or a 16 or 17-year-old and a guy with a beard.”

Age disputes involving asylum seekers are not unique to Spain. European governments have for years faced cases in which migrants arrive without reliable identity documents and their claimed ages are challenged by authorities.

One widely reported British case involved an Iraqi man who entered the United Kingdom by small boat while claiming to be 17 but was later identified through fingerprint records as a 42-year-old former Islamic State fighter. He had spent a brief period in local-authority accommodation intended for minors before his identity was established.

Such cases do not establish that adults make up a large share of the minors currently registered in Ceuta, and Spanish authorities have not said that most of the children in the current crisis are falsely claiming their ages.

The dispute nevertheless has intensified calls from VOX for medical or documentary age assessments where officials have doubts.

Fúster also argued that genuine minors should generally be reunited with their families.

He said remaining with parents or relatives in their home country would often be in the child’s “best interest,” rather than being permanently resettled elsewhere in Spain.

That position overlaps in part with Spanish law’s requirement that family reunification be examined, but Spanish and European child-protection rules require individual assessments rather than automatic returns.

Humanitarian groups including Amnesty International, Save the Children, UNICEF and the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid have similarly said that family reunification in Morocco can be appropriate in some cases but that authorities must first determine whether the child would be returning to a safe environment and whether international protection is required.

Spain’s Supreme Court has also placed limits on expedited returns. Human-rights organizations have argued that previous attempts to send minors back without full individual procedures violated Spanish law.

The political fight has intensified because Ceuta’s child-protection system has been operating far beyond its normal capacity since the July crossing.

The enclave, a Spanish autonomous city on the North African coast bordered by Morocco, has limited space and social-service infrastructure. Local officials have repeatedly pressed Madrid and Spain’s autonomous communities to help relocate minors to the mainland.

Rego said Monday that the national government believes such transfers are necessary to relieve pressure on Ceuta.

“Only one process exists,” she said, pointing to earlier transfers during the Canary Islands migration crisis and arguing that the central and regional governments must coordinate placements rather than leave Ceuta to handle the children alone.

The July event itself was extraordinary in scale.

Spanish authorities reported more than 72,000 arrivals from Morocco, while Moroccan figures put the number lower. At least dozens of people died or disappeared during dangerous attempts to reach the enclave by land and sea, and reception facilities rapidly became overwhelmed.

Most adult migrants subsequently left or returned to Morocco, but minors presented a more complicated legal issue because of Spain’s child-protection obligations.

The European Commission initially supported efforts to facilitate returns in cooperation with Morocco, while stressing that those measures must comply with European and Spanish law.

Madrid later announced plans to move hundreds of particularly vulnerable minors to mainland Spain as Ceuta’s facilities exceeded capacity.

Monday’s comments from Rego indicate that such transfers may now become the longer-term outcome for a majority of the children.

Her ministry’s position does not mean every unaccompanied minor automatically receives refugee status or permanent residence. Each child’s immigration and protection case is subject to Spanish law and individual circumstances.

Nor does a minor’s preference alone determine whether repatriation occurs.

The central question under Spanish law is the child’s best interest, including the availability and suitability of family in Morocco, potential protection needs and the findings of Spanish child-welfare and prosecutorial authorities.

What has changed is the government’s expectation of the likely outcome.

Rather than anticipating that most of the unaccompanied minors from the July crossing will soon return across the border, Rego now says most are likely to remain under Spanish protection — deepening an immigration dispute between Madrid, Ceuta’s government and opposition parties over where those children should live and how their cases should ultimately be resolved.

Original article