The high intensity with which waves of migrants are landing in the Canary Islands this summer 2023 is worrying the Spanish authorities. Especially with temperatures starting to drop drastically in Europe and on the ocean. In October 2023 alone, more than 13,000 candidates were rescued by the Spanish services. And at least 3,000 others were intercepted between Mauritania, Morocco and Senegal. Of course, these figures do not take into account people missing at sea.

“There was a time when it was thought that the record set in November 2020 could not be surpassed. And October 2023 has arrived, shattering all records. For months now, we have seen a steady increase in the number of people arriving from Senegal. But the “great departure” is not only by sea, but also by land to Mali, Niger and even by plane to other countries. The pillars of Senegalese society have been broken,” said Txema Santa de Cadena Ser, a journalist reporting on migration.

More than 4000 unaccompanied minors in the Canary Islands

Among the waves that arrive in the Canary Islands by thousands every week, the number of Unaccompanied Minors (UAMs) is even more worrying for the Spanish authorities who have to take care of them. ” In the Canary Islands, more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors have been received. Spain cannot continue to look the other way and leave this reality in the hands of solidarity. An IMMEDIATE commitment is needed,” claims our Spanish colleague on the spot.

The Medical Director of the El Hierro Health Center, Begoña García, confirms what the journalist Txema Santana said. The situation is becoming increasingly worrying for both migrants and minors. “We can’t leave the people of the island without blankets, but we can’t abandon the migrants. At the beginning of the crisis in June, many adult men arrived. Many women and children arrive with pathologies that we do not know about. The truth is that the number of children under the guardianship of the Canary Islands government has doubled throughout this year. There are already more than 4,000 spread across the archipelago,” she said in a report on Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.

Spanish law prohibits the repatriation of unaccompanied minors

Faced with these waves arriving in the Canary Islands, the Spanish Government has decided to set up centers to accommodate at least 11,000 migrants to relieve the archipelago, which is beginning to saturate. According to the Spanish media El Pais, picked up  by Les Echos, “Spain is preparing to open 11,000 places in hotels, hostels, barracks or former military hospitals, spread throughout the peninsula to relieve the small archipelago overwhelmed by the scale of the flow”.

The Ministry of Inclusion and Migration will use the infrastructure provided by the army for 4,000 people, and will supplement by financing 7,000 other emergency accommodations. However, unaccompanied minors are not part of this movement to other regions of Spain. So, we need to find solutions to take care of them. “What you have to understand is that the Canary Islands are just a transit resort. This is where migrants go. But, that’s not where they’re going to settle. Except minors. Now, the authorities of the Islands are trying to find partnerships with local authorities in other regions to see how to share these minors. Because Spanish law forbids their repatriation. We have to take care of them until they are 18 years old,” said José Naranjo, El Pais’ West Africa correspondent.

Legislative framework on unaccompanied minors in France, Italy and Spain

In a study carried out by the Franco-Senegalese NGO, “Apprentis d’Auteuil” as part of the “Passer’Ailes” project, the investigators were able to note that there is a very abundant documentation on those who are now called “Unaccompanied Minors” (MNA),a terminology that has recently replaced in France what was known as “Isolated Foreign Minor”.

Generally speaking, foreign minors find themselves stuck at the intersection of their two identities, which belong to different legal categories: foreigner and minor. And according to the document made available to Dialogue Migration by the said NGO, Italy is the only one of the three countries to have adopted a comprehensive framework for the protection of unaccompanied minors, with the so-called Zampa Law, voted in 2017, which defines the “Provisions relating to protection measures for unaccompanied foreign minors”.

In Italy, the law confers on foreign minors the same rights as those enjoyed by Italian children, rejects invasive methods of determining the age, guarantees the child legal representation at the expense of the State, and establishes a maximum period of 10 days for identification procedures carried out while the minor is in a first reception center. The Act also guarantees children rights to health and education. However, the NGO’s study highlighted difficulties in the implementation of the texts.

In Spain, where there are currently 4,000 unaccompanied minors, most of whom are Senegalese, the issue of foreign minors is at the crossroads of immigration legislation, which is the responsibility of the State; and child protection legislation, which is the responsibility of the autonomous regions, and the regulatory framework is generally outdated. The two laws recognising the pre-eminence of child protection over the rights of aliens are not always respected. A framework protocol was promulgated in 2014 tocoordinate the action of the various institutions. The fact remains that the regions do not always have the same policy in this area. After 3 years in Spain, rooting is considered sufficient, the regularization process can begin and young people can obtain awork and residence permit.  

In France, it is the law of 14 March 2016 that defines the legal framework in which child protection is exercised with the aim of “improving national and local governance of child protection” and “securing the child’s path to child protection”. French practice with regard to foreign minors places unaccompanied foreign minors primarily under the protection of children at risk rather than under the right of asylum.

Foreign minors must report to the social services of the Child Welfare Service (ASE). Once recognised as a minor, he or she is placed under the juvenile judge and therefore taken care of by the ASE, which is under the responsibility of the departments. The latter have different policies from one department to another in this area, in particular with regard to financial allocation, but also with regard to the provision of reception facilities.

For example, in the Maison d’Enfants à Caractère Social (MECS) in Eaubonne (Val d’Oise), for example, each young person receives €50 pocket money per month, €10 for the hairdresser, €150 per quarter for clothes, and €15 per month for hygiene costs. However, the process by which this recognition is made is done in several stages and often tests the minors who are asked to be very coherent in the narrative of their journey, with precise dates (which is very difficult after such a traumatic experience), while at the same time reproaching them for this requested consistency, which would be synonymous with an overly constructed narrative or a maturity characteristic of an adult, deplore the authors of the study.