Lourdes Reyzábal: "Nobody would pay a mafia to enter through a door that was open"
The president of the Raíces Foundation, which has been assisting minors like those who have arrived in Ceuta for 30 years, doubts the official version and laments the partisan "instrumentalisation".
Lourdes Reyzábal (Madrid, 53 years old), a psychologist by training, created the Raíces Foundation three decades ago, which has helped more than 5,000 children without family protection, most of whom risked their lives to reach Spain. In 2008, her husband, lawyer Nacho de la Mata, obtained two key rulings from the Constitutional Court after filing appeals at a time when minors were being repatriated to their countries of origin without being heard and without contacting, in some cases, their families.
De la Mata died in 2012, from a brain tumor, and a Human Rights award, given by the General Council of the Bar, now bears his name. One of the children he had helped, Anouar, who entered Spain at the age of 13 hidden under a truck, returned years later to Reyzábal and De la Mata's home to care for him in his last days.
Translated by urgent.news from El Pais's report; automated translation may contain errors. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
