Romania, Spain "A network of children exploitation does exist"

11 Sep 2007 |

After five weeks of street work in three main Spanish cities, the investigative team starts to have information about the situation of isolated Romanian minors in Spain.

Mari-Paz Ramos-Martin is heading the delegation of Tdh in Valencia and she is coordinating in Spain the works of the two investigators mandated by Tdh in Bucharest. The street work will continue up to the end of September and the findings will be compiled into a report at the end of 2007. Today, Mari-Paz Ramos-Martin shares with us the first results of the research…

Mari-Paz Ramos-Martin: We have implemented our street work in Madrid, Barcelona but mainly in Valencia.

How do you explain the relatively low number of Romanian minors in the streets during the month of August in Spain?

Mari-Paz Ramos-Martin: We can explain the low number of Romanian minors in the streets by thinking there are several hypothesis. They are placed in social centres by the police or they are in stand by, waiting for the decreasing of police pressure. Or even they have moved towards other countries: United Kingdom or Belgium.

Did you identify modes of exploitation of Romanian minors during the street work?

Mari-Paz Ramos-Martin: Well, the main activity of the Romanian minors in the streets in Spain is robbery, by pick-pocketing or stealing mobile phones for instance… And we can assume that some adults are invisible but always present in these activities. We even know the existence of a market for the stolen things as the final link of these criminal rings. So with all these tracks, we can assume that a network of children exploitation does exist, but it is difficult for us to demonstrate it as they are illegal activities.

The assessment is not finished yet in the streets in Spain, what are the next steps you foresee with the street work team?

Mari-Paz Ramos-Martin: We will have interviews these days with the stakeholders, we want to visit the shelters, have some meetings with the prosecutors and the police. But we think that a second investigation is really needed to complete the levels of information and knowledge about the phenomenon…

Yourself, you are working in Spain, in Valencia, and are you intending to go to Romania, just to see the situation there?

Mari-Paz Ramos-Martin: I would like to! I think that when we were talking about the 'market situation', we think that Romania could be the last link of this 'market'…

On the same topic:

May 17: “A new investigation on the trafficking of Romanian children in Spain this summer”
Aug 06: [Romania – Spain] The investigation in the streets of Madrid and Valence has started

Sept 13: [Romania – Spain] Police arrests 18 minors within 24 hours for robbery on ATM in Valencia