Madrid : Mostly Moroccan, children in protection centers say they are subjected to violence

From January 2016 to June 2020, up to 55 girls and boys said they had suffered physical and / or psychological violence, in child protection centers in the autonomous community of Madrid. A report by a local NGO called Raíces Foundation indicates that nearly 350 minors monitored «saw their rights violated when they were under the supervision of the regional administration», according to Spanish news agency EFE.

They are mainly unaccompanied minors aged between 12 and 17 from Morocco and, to a lesser extent, Guinea, Algeria, the Gambia, Dominican Republic and Cameroon. The violations consist in particular of refusing to determine their age, or delaying the procedure of placing them under guardianship.

This «hinders the effective access of many children to their most basic rights - clothing, maintenance, education, health care - and, in the case of foreigners, access to identity documents and regularization of their situation in Spain», wrote EFE.

The Foundation believes that these practices persist even after effective supervision, turning «into systematic violations of rights».

According to the accounts relayed by EFE, the residents said that they were subjected to «excessive use of force». «Hits all over the body, punches in the face and head, kicking in the stomach, trampling on the neck, beatings with batons, use of chains and even biting».

The Foundation denounced that when children want to report these incidents, «they encounter obstacles from their educators and the administration», hence the lack of emotional and material support.