NCJ Number
195181
Date Published
May 2002
Length
62 pages
Annotation
This paper critiques how Spain and Morocco have handled the problem of thousands of Moroccan children, some as young as 10 years old, who have entered Spain alone without proper documentation, and recommendations are offered.
Abstract
Sneaking past Moroccan and Spanish police at ports and border posts, these children, who are fleeing abusive families, poverty, and the lack of educational and employment opportunities in Morocco, all too often experience violence, discrimination, and a dangerous life on the streets of unfamiliar cities. When apprehended in Spain, they may be beaten by police and then placed in overcrowded, unsanitary residential centers. Some are arbitrarily refused admission to a residential center. The residential centers often deny them the health and educational benefits guaranteed them by Spanish law; in these centers, children may be subjected to abuse by other children and the staff entrusted with their care. If they are fortunate, they may be expelled back to Morocco, but there they may be beaten by Moroccan police and eventually turned loose to fend for themselves. Such abuse of children occurs in two countries that have committed themselves to provide all children within their jurisdictions the rights and guarantees specified in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Government of Spain should coordinate the efforts of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, the Ministerio Fiscal, the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Departments of Social Welfare of the autonomous cities, and the security forces to ensure that unaccompanied migrant children have access to residential care, education, emergency services, and other health care, along with temporary residency documents, as required under Spanish law. Further, the Governments of Spain and Morocco should coordinate their efforts to ensure that children are repatriated from Spain to Morocco only when they are returned to family members who are willing and able to care for them or to an appropriate social service agency. The Government of Morocco should take steps to protect unaccompanied migrant children who have been returned to Morocco from Spain from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and other abuses at the hands of police. This report is based on 5 weeks of research in Spain and Morocco, spanning the months of July, October, and November 2001. Interviews were conducted with unaccompanied migrant children, government officials, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and local activists in Ceuta, Melilla, and Madrid in Spain and Tangier, Rabat, and Casablanca in Morocco. Researchers also reviewed an extensive body of official documents related to individual children's cases and complaints alleging police abuse of children in Ceuta. Appended supplementary materials and lists of Human Rights Watch publications for 2001 and 2002