Spain will allocate an additional €25 million to the autonomous city of Ceuta to support the care of unaccompanied migrant minors who arrived during last week’s migration surge, Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Elma Saiz announced on Tuesday.
Speaking to Spanish media, Saiz said the extraordinary funding will be added to the €5.5 million already approved during the July meeting of Spain’s Sectoral Conference on Children and Adolescents.
“The government has been, and will continue to be, by Ceuta’s side, especially in supporting the most vulnerable,” she said.
According to the minister, the funds will be transferred by the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Youth and Children, which will then provide the exceptional financial allocation to Ceuta through existing administrative mechanisms.
Saiz also called on all of Spain’s autonomous regions, “including those governed by the Popular Party,” to share responsibility for accommodating and caring for the unaccompanied minors.
The minister, who also serves as the Spanish government’s spokesperson, said Madrid had anticipated a seasonal increase in irregular migration during the summer but had “never received” any report warning of the unprecedented scale of last Thursday’s arrivals in Ceuta.
Her remarks came in response to questions about statements published Monday by Morocco’s state news agency, which cited Moroccan sources saying Rabat had warned Spain days before the crisis about the potential consequences of a Spanish Supreme Court ruling issued in early July.
Saiz praised Morocco’s cooperation in managing the situation, saying Spain could not have delivered such an “exceptional response” without the support of the Moroccan authorities.
She also referred to Tuesday’s meeting of European Union interior ministers, attended by Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and highlighted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s praise for Spain’s handling of the crisis.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Ministry of Youth and Children told Spanish newspaper La Razón that, in coordination with the Ministry of Education, two educational facilities in Ceuta have been designated to temporarily accommodate unaccompanied migrant minors, with particular attention given to girls.
The ministry added that Youth and Children Minister Sira Rego is expected to visit Ceuta in the coming days to assess the situation and oversee the activation of measures aimed at ensuring dignified reception conditions for the children.
Among those measures is the implementation of amendments to Spain’s immigration law, which provide for the redistribution of unaccompanied minors from migration hotspots such as Ceuta to other Spanish regions.
The ministry also noted that the legislation allows authorities to cooperate with non-governmental organizations to protect the children and facilitate family reunification when relatives are present in their countries of origin and conditions there are deemed to serve the child’s best interests.
Officials stressed that each case will be assessed individually to safeguard children’s rights, adding that authorities have strengthened identity verification procedures before transferring minors to reception and protection centers.
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