The Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, has estimated that about 1,200 migrant minors are still pending identification in Ceuta, which would be added to the 1,478 already listed in the protection system of the autonomous city. The head of the department provided this data on Monday during her appearance before the Youth and Childhood Commission of Congress, where she explained the Government's response following the massive entry of migrants recorded at the end of July.
The number of minors pending affiliation is an estimate from the Executive. Rego has acknowledged that the identification process should have developed more quickly and has raised the need to alleviate the pressure on the reception system in Ceuta by transferring minors to other points in Spain.
The minister has defended that "it is essential" to accommodate unaccompanied minors who remain in the city, both to reduce the pressure on Ceuta's resources and to ensure their care.
Rego proposes to transfer 500 "especially vulnerable" girls
As part of this strategy, Rego has requested the Government of Ceuta to authorize the transfer to the Peninsula of 500 girls out of the 760 currently in the city, considering that they present a "profile of special vulnerability."
The minister explained that the operation could be carried out through an entity and could be initiated "more or less immediately" once the first part of the file in Ceuta is completed. The minors would be accommodated in small-sized centers distributed across different points in the country.
According to Rego, this measure is pending the consent of the PP, which governs in Ceuta, in order to be executed.
The minister detailed that of the 760 girls remaining in the city, about 300 are in neighborhood entities and are "supervised or guarded by the Police." Another 360 are within the reception system of Ceuta, and of them, 233 are under 12 years old.
Rego pointed out that many of these minors come from particularly difficult situations. She cited cases of girls fleeing from sexual violence, forced marriages, mistreatment, or homelessness, in addition to referring to the presence of a high number of LGTBIQA+ girls.
An estimate of 1,200 minors pending identification
The number of minors who have still not been identified has generated an exchange between Rego and the PP deputy Ana Alós during the parliamentary committee.
Alós has questioned the different figures offered in recent weeks by representatives of the Government and has asked the minister how many minors really remain in Ceuta.
Rego has explained that the 1,200 minors pending affiliation constitute an estimate, while the 1,478 identified minors are those currently listed in the system.
The president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, had previously indicated that around 5,000 people remained in Ceuta, of which 1,200 would be unaccompanied minors. Rego has differentiated this estimate from the number of minors already incorporated into the protection system.
The minister has acknowledged that the identification process has been slower than she would have liked. At the same time, she has reminded that it involves more than 2,000 children whose situation must be determined.
The Government defends the distribution among communities
Rego has defended the binding mechanism for the distribution of minors approved by the Government and has argued that it allows avoiding that the bordering autonomous communities have to bear extraordinary pressure situations on their own.
As she has explained, this system has already allowed to host more than 2,000 minors across the territory during the last year, without notable incidents.
The minister has also proposed other alternatives to decongest the system in Ceuta, including bilateral cooperation agreements between autonomous communities and family hosting.
In this last case, she has assured that her department has received requests from families from different parts of Spain interested in hosting minors and that it is working with specialized associations to study how the procedure could be articulated.
Rego has insisted that the administrative files of the minors can continue to be processed outside of Ceuta once initiated in the city. Therefore, she has argued that "Ceuta cannot bear this weight alone because it is unfair and materially impossible".
Family reunification and return to Morocco
The situation of the minors has also pitted the Government against the PP and Vox over the formulas to resolve their situation.
Rego has defended that any return or process of family reunification must be carried out attending to the "best interest" of the child. In this sense, she has rejected that automatic returns can occur without having previously identified the minors and verified the conditions of their return.
The minister has also recalled that Spain had sent to Morocco around 600 files before July 30 to verify the family situation of minors. According to her, the response received from the Moroccan authorities has been "the silence".
Rego has defended that, when a family reunification is safe, it must be carried out, but she has warned that while those procedures are completed, minors need to remain under protection.
In this context, she has demanded that minors be transferred to other points in Spain while administrative procedures continue, especially considering that family reunification processes can be prolonged.
"Girls and boys are not invaders"
The minister has also responded during her appearance to the positions of PP and Vox regarding the fate of the minors who arrived in Ceuta.
"Girls and boys are not invaders, they are subjects of rights", Rego has stated, who has defined the minors who arrived alone as victims of situations of exploitation, abandonment, or abuse.
The minister has added that none of them caused the crisis and has defended that "our first obligation is not to confuse the responsible with the victims".
Vox, on the other hand, has defended the return of minors to Morocco. The deputy Blanca Armario has accused the Government of "high treason" and has argued that keeping minors in Spain means, in her opinion, "cooperating with the invader and the mafias."
The PP deputy Ana Alós has defended that the way to protect minors is family reunification and has criticized that hosting without activating the return could turn minors into "an instrument of pressure."
From Junts, Josep Maria Cervera has demanded to anticipate the situation and has questioned how the distribution of minors will be carried out, while the spokesperson for Sumar, Nahuel González, has rejected the "dehumanization" of PP and Vox and has defended that there are territories with the capacity to take on new hosting.
Ceuta raises its capacity for hosting
The appearance of Rego occurs on the same day that the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has announced an increase in the temporary reception capacity in Ceuta.
The new resources allow for up to 3,300 temporary places, distributed between Loma Colmenar, with 1,200; Loma Margarita, with 1,300; more than 500 additional places in the CETI and another 320 in La Hípica.
These places are added to the approximately 500 usual places of the Temporary Immigrant Stay Center. The Government's objective is to gradually raise the capacity for temporary humanitarian assistance to 6,000 places.
The expansion of these resources is proposed while the process of identification and referral of the people remaining in Ceuta continues and efforts are made to relieve the pressure on the child protection system of the autonomous city.