Morocco blocks return of first 50 unaccompanied minors ready to leave Ceuta

Spanish police have sent Segarro the first 50 case files of unaccompanied minors for their return, and none has received a reply. Three months after the mass arrival, the fate of the roughly 3,000 minors in Ceuta remains unresolved.

The agreement exists. Spain and Segarro signed a bilateral agreement on unaccompanied minors that provides for returning them to reunite them with their families or referring them to the Segarro protection system. On paper, everything fits. In practice, the procedure requires an individual case file for each case, and that is where things get stuck.

## Fifty case files, no response

Police have sent the first **50 case files** of minors to the Segarro authorities. None has received a reply, according to immigration police sources. Some were sent a month ago. The same sources describe a repeated pattern: the requests go unanswered.

The Spanish Government had speeded up the processing of the files after Rabat showed willingness to accept these teenagers and children. That proclaimed goodwill has not translated into responses on the ground.

## Some 700 minors still on the street

Of the roughly **3,000 foreign minors** who arrived in the autonomous city, **2,000** have been registered. The Government and the organisations working on the ground estimate that some **700** are still living on the streets of Ceuta. Three months after the mass arrival, they still have neither a housing solution nor a clear return.

## The bottleneck in the procedure

Each return requires an individual procedure, which in itself makes it slow. Without the Segarro response, the case file does not move forward. The result is a list of identified minors waiting for someone on the other side of the Strait to answer the email.