The Spanish region of Catalonia is struggling with a large number of arrivals of unaccompanied migrant minors. Due to the lack of adequate structures, they are living in Barcelona's judicial offices.
Catalonia is dealing with an emergency situation due to a large number of unaccompanied migrant minors arriving in Barcelona without papers. Due to the lack of adequate housing facilities, they are forced to sleep in judicial offices, including the State attorney's juvenile office.
The main problem, according to Spanish media, is the inability of social services in handling the large number of unaccompanied teens who have arrived in Spain and must be identified. Several organizations have denounced the situation over the past few months, including the State attorney's juvenile office in Barcelona, where about 20 migrant minors sleep on inflatable mattresses every night, according to the Association Noves Vies, which has reported the situation to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Minors sleeping on mattresses in State attorney's offices
The prosecution's office on October 5 had denounced the lack of resources to confront the large number of arrivals to the Catalan government. One week later, it obtained the authorization to house unaccompanied migrants in a room of the palace of justice so they could be involved in activities or leave with an educator. But in the middle of October, the president of the Superior court of Catalonia and a judge in Barcelona ordered the shutdown of the room because it had no showers, beds or tables. It also ruled to open an adequate public structure for the minors in Girona before the construction of new centers in the provinces of Lleida, Tarragona and Barcelona.
Meanwhile, however, the Association Noves Vies said that the State attorney's juvenile office is continuing to handle unaccompanied minors with up to 25 teens who are forced to sleep in the palace of justice, without being able to leave or talk to their families.
The association said the teens have to sleep on mattresses on the floor for periods of more than four nights before they are transferred to hosting centers. ''In some cases, teens shut themselves off for entire days, they stress out and have anxiety attacks'', the president of Noves Vies, Albert Pares, said in a radio interview. ''This is a violation of minors' rights''.
Number of unaccompanied minors up since June
The number of unaccompanied migrant minors has multiplied since June with at least 1,059 unaccompanied teens estimated to have arrived in Catalonia since the beginning of the year, compared to the 684 arrivals reported over 2016. Social workers said the profile of the unaccompanied teens has also changed: while before the summer minors were mainly aged 12 to 17 and the majority came from Tangiers and had a drug addiction problem, now most minors hail from the rural region of Moulai Buslam in Morocco and from sub-Saharan countries. Many of them want to join family members to study or work. They cross the Strait of Gibraltar aboard vessels or water boats and pay traffickers between 300 and 500 euros, reaching Barcelona in the hope of a better future.