Young, underage men are arriving every day in Cadiz, Barbate and the Puerto di Santa Maria on old Zodiac boats or wooden ones from small towns on the western coast of Morocco. The route helps them circumvent advanced surveillance systems.
The news was reported by NGOs and those working at the center for migrants of Nuesta Senora del Cobr in Algesiras in the Cadiz province, where most of the underage migrants stay before being transferred to other centers in Almeria, Andalusia and Gibraltar, which are now full.
"Most are Moroccans under age 18, even though in the past few months the number of Sub-Saharan migrants arriving from the Ivory Coast and Guinea Conakry has increased." the Spanish branch of Caritas said. "A high percentage of unaccompanied migrants under age 18 come from small towns near Douaur Mesbah, a fishing village that has become one of the bases of the mafias involved in human trafficking," said José Carlos Cabrera, cultural mediator of the center for minors of Nuestra Señora del Cobre and an expert in migration issues.
"Families pay between 1,000 and 1,500 euros for the journey, half of it in advance and the rest once minors get to Spanish territory, in the centers for the internment of foreigners," he added in statements to the media. Total revenue for the mafias ranges between 75,000 and 150,000 euros per boat and journey, the center estimates, on the basis of statements made by the migrants.
The migrants leave from the coastal towns of Mulau Bousselham, Kenitra and Larache on boats that sail along the Moroccan coast to the Bay of Tangiers, then they cross the Strait of Gibraltar and away from Capo Espartel to avoid being intercepted by the Spanish navy.
"The Zodiac dinghies and the large boats come from Cadiz, Barbate and Puerta de Santa Maria because SIVE, the advanced surveillance system, which localizes boats before they get to the peninsula, has not worked on these coasts since August 2016," Cabrera said. "The system has been sabotaged by drug trafficking mafias that use the same route and set the radars on fire." There are no more funds to repair them, he adds.
The employees at the centers for the detention of foreigners under age 18 complain that there are no measures in place or interventions planned to deal with the emergency situation, which has led to overflowing centers. "This year we are expecting to see another record high of unaccompanied minors and the situation is at the very limit, since the facilities are already housing double or triple their reception capacity, Caritas said.
"The Red Cross, due to overcrowding, is not able to provide medical examinations and the police are not carrying out the necessary identification processes for the minors, who are living beside adult migrants," Cabrera said.
The Andalusia youth rights defender Jesus Maetzu has lashed out, saying that minors have a right to protection and this "must be a principle at the basis of migration policies of EU member states," but it is instead violated and relegated to "NGO solidarity."
The NGO Caminando Fronteras estimates that 31 percent of the 388 people who died on the Spanish coasts between September 2015 and December 2016 were minors: 122 children and adolescents. Several organizations assisting minors have called for legal and safe ways for migrants to enter the country.
Since the beginning of the year, 7,774 men, women and children have arrived in the country through the Strait of Gibraltar, according to the IOM and 44 children have been saved from boats heading for Spain that left from the Moroccan coasts of the western Mediterranean.