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A court in the Canary Islands has ordered the closure of a centre for unaccompanied migrant children, citing allegations that include physical abuse, hate crimes and threats.
Police vehicles pulled up to the centre on the outskirts of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on Monday, entering the facility where 43 children were being housed. A court on the island – the first in Spain to specialise in violence against children and adolescents – said it had asked police to carry out the raid “in light of the extensive evidence and testimony” of alleged crimes taking place in the centre.
At least nine employees were detained for several hours, and officials said that further arrests had not been ruled out. Few other details were provided, however, as the court said it had ordered the investigation to be carried out in secret.
Regional authorities had been notified, the court added in a statement, to ensure that they could “take the necessary measures to ensure the wellbeing and protection” of the children who were being housed at the shuttered centre.
In recent years there has been a rise in people turning to the treacherous Canary Islands route, which is one of the most dangerous crossings into Europe, setting off in unstable vessels that are often unfit to face the fierce currents of the Atlantic.
The surge in arrivals included thousands of unaccompanied children, prompting officials in the Canary Islands to repeatedly say that the region is overwhelmed.
In March, the region – which at the time bore responsibility for about 37% of the unaccompanied children who had arrived in Spain – told Spain’s supreme court that more than 1,000 unaccompanied children were living in overcrowded conditions and without access to adequate resources.
A recent investigation by Amnesty International highlighted several other issues with the islands’ network of more than 80 centres for unaccompanied children, including a lack of staff with proper training, such as the “nightclub bouncers” who in some cases had been hired to staff the centres.
The organisation said it had also documented allegations of abuse, including excessive punishments that had forced children into isolation or deprived them of food. Virginia Álvarez of the organisation said in a statement: “These situations are unacceptable: let’s remember that we’re talking about children, who often arrive in very vulnerable situations.”
She said that many of the children had fled human rights violations or were survivors of violence and trauma, and all of them were now grappling with uncertainty and anxiety about their future.
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For more than a year, Spanish politics has been beset by wrangling over who exactly is responsible for these children, pitting the regional government in the Canary Islands against the central government. Earlier this year, the Spanish central government announced a mandatory programme that would force regions across the country to help take in these children, setting off tensions with some of the regions led by the conservative People’s party.
After releasing its investigation in March, Amnesty International said the blame lay with various administrations, from the Canary Islands officials who had carried out 28 inspections of children’s centres in the span of five years, to the central government and the regions that were refusing to act in solidarity.
Esteban Beltrán, the director of Amnesty International Spain, said the “failures in the protection system in the Canary Islands are a shared responsibility. They continue to pass the buck to one another and, as a result, children remain without adequate protection.”
