The government of the Canary Islands has offered an alternative to the situation of unaccompanied Moroccan minors who arrived illegally by sea to its territory. The proposal is for the United Nations Organization for Migration (IOM) to house these minors in centers located in Morocco, with the exception that the Spanish community would continue to maintain legal guardianship over them. The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, explained this during his visit to Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Benguerir (UM6P) on Friday. He stated that his community wishes to explore this possibility within the framework provided by Spanish immigration law and the cooperation formulas he discussed with the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister, Nasser Bourita, during his visit to Rabat at the beginning of the month.
“It’s not about repatriation (from Spain back to Morocco), because the guardianship would still be maintained by the Canary Islands government, but it’s about trying, through these international organizations, for the minor to be cared for in their place of origin, which is Morocco,” he added. The formula suggested by the Canary Islands president advocates for the Moroccan minors currently detained in Canary Islands centers to return to their country to avoid uprooting, and to reside in a type of IOM space that allows the Canary Islands community to maintain legal guardianship. This solution could potentially resolve issues concentrated in this territory and others, at least that’s what the president of the Canary Islands aspires to.
In Ceuta, the case opened for the expulsion of 55 Moroccan minors in August 2021 is still ongoing. In this case, the location where these minors would be taken had been agreed upon with Morocco, but nothing has been set for the enclave to continue exercising guardianship over them.
