Balearics say €25m Ceuta migrant aid falls short

The Balearic regional government says €25 million in aid for unaccompanied migrant children and teenagers in Ceuta is not enough. At a meeting on 27 August, the 14 Spanish autonomous communities present approved the funding.

Sandra Fernández, the Balearic minister for Families, Social Welfare and Dependency Care, said the region could not take in children under any distribution scheme from Ceuta. She also repeated the Balearic government’s call for migrants to be returned to their countries of origin.

Balearics demand case-by-case checks

For children and teenagers, Fernández said each case should be assessed individually. Where possible, she said, authorities should arrange family reunification in their country of origin.

Galicia, Cantabria and Murcia also called the €25 million package inadequate. Murcia backed the payment to Ceuta but said the money could not guarantee dignified care for the minors.

The Canary Islands government urged the state to use legal tools under the European Pact on Migration and Asylum to speed up care and triage — the process of assessing needs — for migrant minors in Ceuta. It said family reunification, or transfers to other European Union member states, could be among the options.

Three regions skip the meeting

Aragón, Extremadura and Castile and León did not attend the Sectoral Conference on Childhood and Youth. The three regions had written to the Ministry of Youth and Children on Tuesday and Wednesday to say they rejected any distribution of unaccompanied minors from Ceuta to elsewhere in Spain.

According to Catalonia’s social rights minister Raúl Moreno, no proposal to distribute children between regions was put forward at the meeting. Instead, Youth and Children Minister Sira Rego presented a number of possible lines of action.

Topics: Migration · Social affairs · Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com