Last week around 72,000 migrants arrived in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta. Most were sent back to Morocco, but an estimated 1,100 unaccompanied children remained.

Local reception facilities built for fewer than 100 children are now overwhelmed. With nowhere adequate to house them, humanitarian organizations are warning that every child left outside the protection system is at risk of trafficking, violence and exploitation.

“The authorities cannot handle this”

Reports say the unaccompanied minors have been found sleeping in crowded warehouses at the Tarajal border and on beaches, streets and alleyways. Some reportedly suffered injuries trying to cross the border by swimming, while others have alleged that police inflicted injuries on them.

Seventeen-year-old Youssef said he had travelled alone because his mother, a single parent, was sick. He came looking for work so he could help care for her, despite having to leave his home behind.

Local organizations are trying to fill the gaps by distributing thousands of meals each day. Ceuta’s mayor Juan Jesus Vivas is pleading for support, “We are crying out for help and assistance.”

Authorities turned away a resident, Hamza Sitouni Moreno, who took some children for help. He ended up giving one young girl a place to sleep in his car. His assessment was stark: “So many ⁠people arrived … the authorities cannot handle this.”

The danger of becoming invisible

The immediate concern is not simply where these children will sleep, but what could happen to them while they remain unidentified and outside the protection system.

Equality Minister María Guijarro warns that migrant girls and women face an “extreme risk” of sexual and physical violence, and trafficking and sexual exploitation. That warning carries added weight given a striking shift in who is arriving: in 2024, 8% of juvenile migrants seeking asylum were female but by 2025, that figure had risen to 37%.

Info Migrants reports on a dire warning from migration specialist at Save the Children, Jennifer Zuppiroli:

“In a crisis of this magnitude, girls and adolescents can become especially invisible. It’s not enough to count how many children and adolescents have arrived: we need to know who they are, where they are, and what their needs are. A teenage girl who is alone and outside the system can be extremely vulnerable to violence, exploitation, or trafficking,”

Spain is now attempting to identify minors and distribute responsibility for their care across the country. But before authorities can move children, they must identify them, confirm their age, build individual files and secure cooperation from receiving regions. Even when regions accept children, the process of relocation could take months.

Four of Spain’s regions, governed by a coalition of the conservative People’s Party and far-right Vox, have indicated they will challenge any such order. Vox’s leader went further, declaring that “not one euro” of Spanish money should go to the children stranded in Ceuta.

Migration policies must not leave children behind

The crisis in Ceuta comes as the EU takes an increasingly tough stance on migration, with greater emphasis on deterrence, returns and stronger controls.

Madrid regional government’s president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said in a post on X:

“I can’t see Spain abandoning its children to their fate in another country,”

“It’s ⁠inhuman, every country ​should take responsibility for its own children and citizens.”

Children should never be left vulnerable to trafficking in the name of border control. The situation in Ceuta shows how quickly children can face exploitation and violence when systems don’t protect them.

Spain’s Ministry of Youth and Childhood says it will approve 25 million euros to Ceuta to increase support for unaccompanied migrant children in Ceuta. Additionally, two educational centers will be opened for shelter, mainly for young girls.

But protecting children from trafficking, violence and exploitation cannot wait until they are already sleeping on streets. Freedom United is calling on Spain and the EU to build migration policies that prevent harm before it happens. Take action to demand stronger protections for migrant children.

*Freedom United is a global community that unites individuals and organizations in the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery, registered in the US as a nonprofit.

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