No toilets, no shelter, little protection. In Ceuta, DW finds thousands of minors living alone on the streets.
Several thousand unaccompanied minors have gathered in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the northern coast of Africa. Illness and abuse are rife, and the authorities admit they are overwhelmed.
At 8 a.m. in Ceuta's Tarajal industrial park, makeshift tents house mainly children and teenagers instead of truck drivers and warehouse workers. Between 3,000 and 5,000 unaccompanied minors reside in the enclave, some due to lack of spots in overcrowded reception facilities. 14-year-old Moroccan girl Amina and her brother are among the 80,000 migrants who crossed into Spain from Morocco late July; about 9,000 remain, mostly minors.
Amina laments the absence of toilets, having to relieve herself in the bushes, fearing privacy. Malika, a Moroccan woman, earns €7 daily, insufficient to support her family. After reading about the mass crossing on social media, she opted to join it, now concerned about sexual assaults and the lack of medical help. Ceuta's emergency doctor, Susana Ascaso, treats multiple young girls daily, with one as young as 12, who reported sexual harassment.
Local authorities suspect a higher number of such cases. Ceuta's president, Juan Jesus Vivas, describes the situation as a "high-risk" scenario, with public services strained, currently 5,000% over capacity. The Spanish government plans to transfer unaccompanied minors to the mainland, but no timeline exists. Some regions, influenced by the far-right Vox party, refuse to accept migrants, and Vivas urges reunification with families or Moroccan social services. Many minors in Ceuta express reluctance to return to Morocco or other African countries.
Written by urgent.news from DW News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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