Mallorca backs €25m Ceuta aid, rejects child transfers

The Balearic Islands, including Mallorca, will back €25 million in emergency Ceuta aid on Thursday, but will not take part in any transfer of unaccompanied migrant children from the Spanish city. Families and Social Welfare minister Sandra Fernández will join the meeting by video, chaired by Youth and Children minister Sira Rego.

The money is intended to care for migrant children in Ceuta after the mass arrival from Morocco on 30 July. Balearic vice-president Antònia Maria Estarellas said the sum would not meet every need and said the islands were watching the situation with “great concern”.

Balearics say they have no room

Estarellas again ruled out joining a possible sharing-out of children who arrived in Ceuta without a parent or guardian. She said the islands did not have the capacity to take in more children and young people than those already there.

She rejected the idea that this was a lack of solidarity or willingness to support the children. Estarellas said a mass arrival in the Balearics would also be very hard to absorb and manage.

Plan for 500 girls faces a vote

Rego will seek a vote at the start of the conference on adding the wider question of caring for unaccompanied children from Ceuta to the agenda. Her ministry is working on a plan that includes moving about 500 girls to mainland Spain without transferring their legal guardianship to Spain’s autonomous communities.

The plan also considers compulsory shared placements across all autonomous communities, foster care and other faster routes into care. The dispute extends to returns to Morocco: the People’s Party says children should be with their families, while Rego says any return must be voluntary and protect their rights.

Topics: Migration · Social affairs · Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com