The Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, has reiterated that it is "illegal to return minors who arrived in Ceuta irregularly on July 30 if their "best interest" is not guaranteed beforehand, "to listen to them," and "to know" if they have "a family to return to."
In a message disseminated this Wednesday on social media and reported by Europa Press, the head of Childhood emphasized that "what the Popular Party proposes is not family reunification or return: it is a deportation of children without any guarantees and without rights, something absolutely illegal."
With these words, the Ministry responds to the PP's demand to return "all" immigrants who accessed the autonomous city irregularly, including minors. This demand was made by the 'popular' leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, at a press conference where he again called for the return of the 70,000 immigrants who crossed the border almost three weeks ago.
Rego has invoked Article 35.5 of the Immigration Law, which only contemplates family reunification "if the appropriate conditions are met" and has stressed that it is contrary to the regulations "to repatriate a child if these conditions are not individually verified."
In an official note, the Department has set as a priority "to adequately and urgently attend to 500 girls" who are in a situation of "absolute vulnerability" and has reminded that Ceuta has "the obligation to protect and assume their guardianship."
The Ministry has added that "all possible avenues" have been analyzed to safeguard the rights of unaccompanied minors still in Ceuta and, at the same time, to alleviate "the reception systems" of the autonomous city.
"We have been coordinating with Ceuta from the very first moment," the minister stated, who explained that she conveyed "personally" to the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, "all possible avenues in the meeting on August 8." "And he agreed to explore them. All," she indicated.
For this reason, she denied that Vivas was unaware of these negotiations and defended that, since that date, the teams from the Ministry and the autonomous city "have continued exploring all possibilities to ensure a dignified reception for unaccompanied migrant children and to ease the systems of the city."