He has the face of a minor, the body of a minor, he behaves like a minor, the police say he is a minor and he carries with him the photograph of a birth certificate according to which he is 14 years old. But he has been sleeping on the street in Madrid for several nights because the Prosecutor’s Office has decreed, despite this evidence, that he is of legal age. Or put another way, he considers him an adult because it is not believed that he is a minor with the evidence he provides. It is the drama of many minors who arrive in Spain unaccompanied and who cannot prove their age.
In the case of the protagonist of this story, A.A., the UN has just corrected what appears to be an error and has asked Spain to urgently remedy what it considers to be a clear violation of the rights of children. Demand that this teenager be taken off the streets and taken to a juvenile center.
This is how the Raíces Foundation tells this story. AA He had asked for a passport in Gambia, his country, before getting on the canoe that took him to the Canary coast. But the procedures were delayed, and the migrant arrived in Spain with only a photo of his birth certificate on his phone. He was transferred to Tenerife and from there he has made a pilgrimage, reports Raíces, through half of Spain. Jumping from center to center. He passed through Granada, lived poorly in Barcelona and at the end of last year – after being expelled from the humanitarian care network for adults – he was sent to Madrid.
In the capital of Spain, that child from Gambia has sought shelter in spaces for homeless adults, where they are only allowed to spend the night. AA He has lived like just another adult migrant during the day. He went to soup kitchens to quench his hunger and sought a life to survive. Only.
It is not acceptable that a minor has to “wander outdoors, eating in soup kitchens with restricted hours and long lines, with difficulties in accessing training…”, denounces Raíces, the organization that has followed this case and that, Given the response from the Spanish authorities, he has asked the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for protection.
There is an answer. This UN committee requests that Spain “urgently” and to prevent irreparable harm to a migrant child who is supposed to be 14 years old, take measures to get him off the street. It was one of those entities that help migrants that put Raíces on the trail of this case. And in this journey it has been confirmed, with official documents, that A.A. He was born on December 9, 2009 in Fajikunda, Gambia, and “that the passport, which he could not collect in his country, is valid and authentic,” they reiterate from the Raíces organization.
That foundation contacted the National Police of Madrid so that the boy could be taken to a juvenile center. And the management had its effect, because that same day the migrant found shelter in one of those facilities. Everything went wrong again when the Prosecutor’s Office questioned all the data and information provided in the case – the minor refused to undergo medical tests – and declared his age of majority. After that resolution, the Protection of Minors of the Community of Madrid expelled A.A. of the juvenile center in which he was found. He now goes back to sleeping on the street.
The Raíces Foundation now congratulates itself on the UN resolution, which it has sent to all the Spanish authorities competent in the matter. He is now waiting for this teenager to once again receive the protection that corresponds to him as a minor, as required by law. At least, while his real age is confirmed, with more evidence.