No toilets, no shelter, little protection. In Ceuta, DW finds thousands of minors living alone on the streets.

It's a typical morning at the Tarajal industrial park in Ceuta, an autonomous city in Spain. Instead of the usual hum of workers and truck drivers, the scene is dominated by makeshift tents, with children and teenagers sleeping under dirty blankets. Authorities estimate there could be between 3,000 and 5,000 unaccompanied minors in Ceuta. Some have been living on the streets due to overcrowded reception facilities, while others are still in the city.

One such girl is Amina, a 14-year-old Moroccan who crossed into Spain from Morocco in late July. Along with her brother, she's one of the 9,000 remaining unaccompanied minors in Ceuta. Amina laments the lack of basic facilities. "We don't have toilets," she said. "We have to go somewhere in the bushes, but I don't dare go alone."

Nearby, Malika, a Moroccan woman, has spread out blankets for herself and her four children. She left Morocco due to low pay as a cleaning lady and the inability to provide for her family. She's now worried about her 12- and 14-year-old daughters, who have been victims of sexual assaults. The situation has become so dire that local authorities suspect a much higher number of sexual assaults than reported.

The local government is calling for more support from the central Spanish government in Madrid, particularly to protect young women and maintain public services. Ceuta's president, Juan Jesus Vivas, describes the situation as a "high-risk situation" with the city currently 5,000% over capacity in terms of the number of minors it can support adequately.

The Spanish government has plans to transfer unaccompanied minors to the mainland, but no concrete timeline has been set. Some regions with far-right governments are refusing to take in migrants. Many of the minors in Ceuta, however, express a desire to stay, hoping for a better future in Spain.