Spain to negotiate the hosting of unaccompanied minor migrants

The Spanish government wants to make the management of unaccompanied minor migrants a priority. The government of Pedro Sánchez is supposed to meet today with the heads of the autonomous communities in order to try to find a solution for these young migrants, in Spain, says El País.

For the time being, Andalusia and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla host more than 67% of the 7,000 minors that are currently in Spain, 70% of them are Moroccan. Especially since the arrivals are still ongoing: this weekend, twelve miners arrived by sea in two boats.

Between 50 and 100 minor migrants still sleep in the streets of Melilla, while in Andalusia, some of them sleep on mattresses piled up on the ground in reception centers.

Moreover, their distribution is very uneven. The three aforementioned autonomous communities have the majority of these minors under their responsibility (Andalusia has 2,597 guardianship, compared to 1,012 in Catalonia and 933 in Melilla), while other communities, such as La Rioja, Extremadura or Castille-León are hardly confronted with the problem.

In just two years, minors supervised by the devolved administrations increased, from 3,997 in 2016 to 7,145 as of June 30, 2018, before arrivals on the Spanish coasts intensified in July. While nearly 70% come from Morocco, the number of young people from countries like Côte d'Ivoire or Guinea has increased by more than 160% last year, according to the NGO Save the Children.