Morocco assures that it will demand the return of unaccompanied minors who crossed into Ceuta on July 30 and 31, during the massive entry of 80,000 people into the Spanish autonomous city. Morocco’s Minister of Justice, Abdelatif Uahbi, states that his country “maintains its determination to recover its children and minors who are in Spain,” and specifies: “Including those who have recently entered the city of Ceuta or other centers.” To substantiate this return, Uahbi affirms in an interview with the digital Hespress that his country will “claim them through legal and political means.”
Uahbi sets his sights on Spain and considers that it has responsibility over the fate of the minors and their living conditions outside Morocco, in addition to urging for an immediate solution to guarantee the return of the minors. “Morocco is not willing to abandon its children, its youth, and its adolescents,” the minister has insisted.
This is not the first time Morocco has sent the message that it is willing to receive unaccompanied minors who have left its borders without their families to reach Spain. On the 6th, a week after the massive entry into Ceuta, a source from Moroccan diplomacy insisted on this idea, but clarifying that the return would only occur if Spain lifts “the judicial and administrative obstacles that prevent it,” without specifying which ones. The source, cited by Efe, elevated the commitment to a royal instruction. “Morocco has assumed very clear commitments on this matter. There are instructions from the king [Mohamed VI] to work in favor of the return of these unaccompanied minors to their country of origin, Morocco.”
In 2024, during a visit by the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, to Rabat, the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Naser Burita, also showed willingness for his country to receive back Moroccan unaccompanied minors, but with the same caveat: he warned of legal difficulties in doing so. Burita warned about the “gaps in laws and [administrative] procedures” in European countries, which hinder repatriation. Since then, no known steps have been taken to implement this proposal.
For decades, Morocco has refrained from claiming minors from that country who have left its borders to enter Spain irregularly. Official statistics from the High Commission for Planning (HCP, by its French acronym), a public body, do not record specific data on unaccompanied minors in Morocco, although the presence of so-called “street children,” without family or educational ties in large cities, is evident. There is also no public information in the North African country about the number of unaccompanied minors abroad.
Despite the lack of official data, NGOs that host single mothers in the Maghreb country estimate that about 50,000 cases are recorded each year: 7% of births. State orphanages (with more than 30,000 admitted, according to the Maroc Coeur association) are the most common destination for extramarital children. Abandonment of babies in apartment doorways or garbage containers is common in large cities such as Casablanca, Marrakech, and Tangier. This newspaper confirmed on July 30 and 31 the presence of women who declared themselves single mothers and who were at the Castillejos border with Ceuta accompanied by minor children intending to cross irregularly along with tens of thousands of people.
The position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose head is appointed directly by King Mohamed VI and not by the head of government, on the return of minors who have entered Ceuta carries an official stamp. For now, the proposal has not been presented publicly nor have specific legal obstacles hindering the repatriation of minors been identified.
Minister Uahbi is campaigning for the legislative elections to be held on September 23, in which the candidate of the political force he leads — the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM, center-right) — Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Moroccan Football Federation and Minister of Budgets, is emerging as the winner.
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