Latest / Best of: Features / In Spain's Ceuta, a delayed government response leaves underage migrants on the streets

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In Spain's Ceuta, a delayed government response leaves underage migrants on the streets · Best of: Features

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  In Spain Suda, a delayed government response leaves underage migrants on the
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  streets. This article is being read by an
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  automated voice generated by Everlet. Suta, Spain, the AP. Hundreds
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  of teenage migrants lined up outside a church in Ceuta in early
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  October, hoping Spain's visiting Minister of Youth would bring them some good
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  news a passage to continental Europe, or at least a spot in
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  a shelter. For two months the had slept On cardboard sheets and
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  ripped sofas in squalid tent camps, or on the streets of the
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  Spanish city In North Africa that juts into the Mediterranean like a
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  thumb. On clear days southern Spain’s is visible on the horizon. Among
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  them was a seventeen year old aspiring model from northern Morocco. In
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  late July he crossed into Ceuta with around eighty thousand others in
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  what would become Spain's deadliest border crisis. Pray for me, he told
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  an associated press reporter. But instead the teens were led down a
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  steep hill to a soccer field, so as not to overwhelm the
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  minister. Within hours many were back on the streets and hillsides. Another
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  setback for the young migrants, the scene also illustrated the Spanish government's
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  slow, often improvised response to them migration crisis in the territory. Thousands
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  of miners reached Ceuta alone, and, under Spanish law, are entitled to
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  shelter, health care, and education. Experts acknowledge the difficulties authorities face, but
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  say the government may simply be hoping that many of them give
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  up and head home. I was expecting a really easy experience, said
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  the seventeen year old, who did not want his name used because
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  he is alone in Suda and fears for his safety. I was
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  expecting two to three weeks of this. Children fend for themselves in
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  a foreign country. Open air, makeshift camps with adults and children have
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  festered on beaches, at warehousen on hillsides, since tens of thousands of
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  people swam or climbed around a breakwater that separates Morocco from Ceuta
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  in July. About one hundred and forty people died trying to cross.
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  Most of those who made it left within days, but officials do
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  not have an exact count of how many people stayed. A few
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  thousand people lived in one beachside camp, where the air reeked of
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  human waste. Children as young as thirteen slept and showered among adult
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  men who frequently broke into fights. Elsewhere miners hid in the steep,
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  narrow streets of some of The city's predominantly Muslim neighborhoods. Our streets
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  are littered with kids, said Ahmed and Fiddal, the president of a
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  neighborhood association. Spanish prosecutors are investigating reports of torture and mistreatment of
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  migrants, including minors. In September, Amnesty International published a report detailing allegations
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  of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment by Spanish soldiers. The report also
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  mentioned the unsafe conditions of underage migrants and allegations of sexual abuse
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  of girls. In early October the seventeen year old said he was
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  sleeping in a car with other teens from Morocco. When he first
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  arrived he slept in a garage with two other miners. A resident
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  charged them each fifteen euros, seventeen dollars per night. Unable to keep
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  paying, he went back to the streets. People tried to rob me
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  twice and hit me, he
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  said. As weeks became months, he has started questioning why he stayed,
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  but feels he cannot return to Morocco. Like many Moroccan teens he
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  told the AP his high school diploma afforded limited opportunities back home.
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  In Tetuan, just forty kilometers twenty five miles south of Ceuta, he
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  worked with his father as a butcher. He said his family has
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  encouraged him to stay. Morocco is a good tourist place, he said,
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  but it's not a good place to be a citizen. A political
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  blame game hardens. Minors who reach Spanish soil alone are the responsibility
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  of regional governments, or in Suda's case, they city. Under Spanish law,
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  a child can be sent back to his or her home country
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  only under specific circumstances. Spain's national government has told Ceuta to process
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  those below eighteen on a case by case basis, approving more than
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  90 million euros, one hundred one million dollars in funding, but the
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  city insists it does not have the resources. Spain's youth minister Cerrago
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  has said most miners in Suda wish to stay in Spain’s and
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  they will do so, she told Spanish radio station Cadena Serre. But
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  Suda's mayor Juan Vivas has urged national authorities to find a way
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  to send the miners from Morocco back home. It's easy to judge
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  from over there, Viva said in September. But you've got to be
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  here. No one knows how many migrants stayed. The two sides also
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  have disagreed over something even more fundamental how many migrants are still
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  in Ceuta? After the initial border rush, Spain's Interior Minister said all
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  but two thousand people had gone back to Morocco. Spain revised the
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  figure to up to ten thousand migrants in September, but Ceuta's mayor
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  says up to fifteen thousand people remain acknowledging the figure changes from
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  one day to the next. Estimates of the number of unaccompanied miners
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  have also fluctuated. Authorities say thousands remain in the city, though it's
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  unclear how many are unsheltered. Rights groups have criticized Spain for still
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  not knowing how many miners there are. We understand that the protects
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  system is currently overwhelmed, but that does not change the fact that
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  there should be an official registry of all individuals in the city
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  who declare themselves to be minors, said Jennifer Zupperoli, a migration expert
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  at Save the Children in Spain. Some remain in vulnerable situations. As
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  more miners have entered shelters, those still waiting are growing weary. For
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  weeks the aspiring model visited the beachside tent camp to collect food
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  from the Red Cross. He and dozens of migrant boys staged small
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  demonstrations, appealing to authorities for help. We just want one thing that
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  Spain protects minors. Long live Spain read a tattered sign that boys
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  as young as thirteen held up as traffic whizzed past. In early
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  October, Spanish police started bulldozing the camp and mountains of Detritus. Groups
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  of migrants were abused elsewhere. Wright's groups and others said some miners
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  were taken to the border. Over WhatsApp, the seventeen year old said
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  he knew some teenagers whom police had taken from the beach. Some
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  ended up in shelters. He was disappointed it happened on the one
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  day he didn't visit the camp. Fearful that the police will send
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  him back to Morocco, he has stayed hidden. I'm feeling tired for
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  the first time since I came, he said. It's been two months,
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  and we're still living in the streets.