Walter Finch
PARENTS on holiday in Spain appear to be abandoning their children in the country so they can stay and claim asylum.
A new ‘trend’ seems to be emerging whereby African parents are travelling to the country with their children on valid tourist visas and then abandoning them after their arrival.
It has been speculated that they might be doing so to exploit the legal protections given to unaccompanied minors.
In Spain, once children are classed as unaccompanied, they can receive state protection and, ultimately, bring their parents who abandoned them, or relatives, to the country under family-reunification laws.
This ‘trend’ has particularly been noticed in the Balearic Islands where Spanish local officials are becoming alarmed.
In Menorca, a welfare officer found two deserted boys, aged 11 and 16, at a bus station after their parents had left the island.
According to local media, these children were from different families with the 11-year-old being from Morocco and the 16-year-old coming from Senegal. Authorities are yet to confirm the children’s nationalities.
The younger boy was taken into a children’s care home in Menorca a day after his arrival on the island and the older child is said to have entered a police station in Mahon after spending a number of days on the streets.
In Ibiza, two other children were left and told to go straight to a police station by their family members.
Officials have privately said that they are not ruling out the possibility that the minors could attempt to bring their relatives to Spain to live with them once they turn 18.
This would be possible as Spain’s family-reunification laws allow certain relatives of Spanish residents to join them in the country.
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Spouses, children, and dependent parents are among those who can apply under this legislation.
In July, another young boy was abandoned at Barcelona’s El Prat airport. His parents were supposedly flying out of Barcelona and concerned that they would not be allowed to enter Morocco due to their son not having a visa.
Prior to boarding their flight, they were stopped by the police.
Officials are sure that this incident in Barcelona is not linked to the new child abandonment migration ‘trend’.
Spanish government officials have now stated that the number of unaccompanied minors has reached almost three times the official capacity. This means that they are struggling to keep all of these children safe.
The Welfare Minister of Menorca’s Council, Carmen Reynes, has expressed her concern. She says that this new ‘phenomenon’ now has to be dealt with in addition to the existing problem of migrants arriving to the island by sea.
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