The person in charge of a shelter for migrant minors in the Canary Islands and nine of the center's employees were arrested and charged on May 19 with inflicting injuries and abuse.
The police of the Canary Islands on May 19 arrested the person responsible for a shelter center for migrant minors and nine of its employees on the island of Gran Canaria, in the Canary archipelago.
The charge was of alleged injuries, abuse and threats against the moral integrity of minors. This is what investigative sources cited by the news Agency EFE state.
Additional arrests are not to be excluded
The measure concerns the employees of the center known as La Fortaleza (the fortress), in the municipality of Santa Brigida, which at the first hours of daylight on May 19 was searched and placed under seizure by the judicial police, following the issuing of an order of the section of the Las Palmas Court specialized in crimes of violence against children and adolescents, the first to operate in Spain.
After having seized the facility, the police arrested the person in charge of the center and nine employees in charge of the minors. Additional arrests are not to be excluded.
The center is destined to shelter unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents, subject to educational measures, and it is managed on behalf of the regional administration by the private facility "Quorum 77".
'Numerous witness accounts received'
The Superior Court of the Canary Islands, in a press release shared on May 19, informed that the specialized section for violence on children had ordered an inspection "due to numerous witness accounts and evidence it had received" for alleged crimes of injury, hatred, abuse, threats and omission of the obligation to prevent and impede crimes against the moral integrity of minors, which took place at the minor's Center.
The Tribunal issued the investigative secrecy on the inquiry and it gave dispositions to the Government of the Canary Islands to put in place "the necessary measures to ensure the well-being and protection of the persons residing at the center", under its legal protection.