Ceuta: the transfer of 500 girls that will cost €5,000 a month

The transfer of the 500 girls from Ceuta: business and scepticism

Nobody has seen the 500. According to the published information, they would be Segarro minors waiting for the ferry to the mainland. The only figure nobody disputes is the cost: around €5,000 a month per place in the reception system, a price that turns the supposed humanitarian gesture into a lucrative business for private centres and organisations. And while the Spanish government speeds up the transfer, the questions pile up unanswered.

The reception business: a €5,000 premium per minor

The bill for looking after an unaccompanied foreign minor comes to around €5,000 a month, according to the figures circulating in the most sceptical circles. It is no small amount: keeping a child in the care of the Spanish administration costs far less. The suspicion is that the transfer from Ceuta is not about the girls' interests, but about keeping alive the revenues of a system that already showed signs of collapse in the Canary Islands: first come temporary tents, then poor conditions are denounced, and in the end reception centres are built that make the problem permanent.

The decision also has a territorial dimension: Spain's autonomous regions are reluctant to take the minors in because they bear the cost of the places. If they refuse, the government can place them in private institutions, a more expensive and opaque route that reinforces the business thesis.

Where are the girls? The figure that doesn't match the images

Scepticism about the number of minors is widespread. The images of the mass entry into Ceuta showed an overwhelming majority of young males, and not enough girls were counted to reach 500. Some estimate that the real number of girls does not exceed 10% of the total, or even reduce them to a handful. The term "girls" is questioned even in terms of self-perception: it is argued that some of those registered as minors could be adults who identify as women in order to obtain protection.

What nobody disputes is that the figure has become a political weapon: it serves to justify an emergency measure and to divert attention from the causes that led these people to cross the border.

The standoff with Segarro and the legal loophole

Behind the transfer looms a legal problem that nobody in the government has explained: how can a minor be separated from her family without a procedure to withdraw parental custody? The parents are in Segarro, have never set foot on Spanish soil, and there is no record that they have been notified. Meanwhile, Rabat demands the return of its minors, a request the government systematically ignores. The conclusion of most observers: the minors are a bargaining chip in the bilateral relationship, and Spain does not want to send them back because that would end the pull effect that fuels migratory pressure.

With the ferry about to sail, nobody asks out loud the most obvious question: where does €5,000 a month come from for each of those supposed 500 girls? The urgency of the transfer suggests the answer is uncomfortable.