State Abuse of Unaccompanied Migrant Children by Spain and Morocco

Every year thousands of Moroccan children, some as young as ten, enter Spain alone without proper documentation. Many arrive via the Spanish port cities of Ceuta and Melilla, where they face beatings by Spanish police and staff at residential centers for children; beatings and extortion by other children at the centers; arbitrary denial of access to education and health care; arbitrary age determination procedures; and summary expulsions to Morocco. Children who have been expelled to Morocco typically face beatings by police and detention in unsafe conditions before being turned out on the streets to fend for themselves.