Spain cannot return migrant children, minister says
Unaccompanied migrant children cannot be sent back to their countries of origin, Spain’s Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory Ángel Víctor Torres says on 19 October. He rejects a proposal from the People’s Party to change immigration law to allow their return.
In an interview with Ser Canarias, Torres says international rules and higher child-protection law require the children to stay where they arrive. He points to Italy under Giorgia Meloni: no unaccompanied children have been sent from there to Libya, he says. Spain’s autonomous communities care for the children, while central governments take that responsibility in some other countries.
Torres also cites Ceuta, Spain, where he says more than 12,000 people have returned to Morocco. All were adults; none were children. He accuses the People’s Party of misleading people about returns.
For migrants arriving in Spain’s Canary Islands, Torres raises a separate question: where would they go under a People’s Party government? He says the party voted against distributing them across the rest of Spain, and asks whether Vox’s demands would leave them in the islands.
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com