Europe Spain: Give Migrant Children Legal Aid

16 Oct 2008 |

In a communique, Human Rights Watch denounces “Spain’s accelerating effort to send back unaccompanied children who enter the country illegally might subject them to danger, ill-treatment and detention”. The 26-page report, “Returns at Any Cost: Spain’s Push to Repatriate Unaccompanied Children in the Absence of Safeguards,” says that in Andalusia, the southern region that is a common entry point for migrants, authorities have said they intend to send up to 1’000 unaccompanied children in their custody to Morocco, claiming that safeguards are in place. But officials could not explain how they determined it was in a child’s best interest to return, as required by law. They also said that the Moroccan government’s agreement to take a child back was in itself a sufficient guarantee of the child’s well-being after return.

Download the report here (English and French)

Source : HRW