Spain 'abuses' child migrants
2007-07-26 15:26
Madrid - Hundreds of African children are at risk of violence and even sexual abuse in Spanish government migrant detention centres in the Canary Islands, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
Children at the four centres established to cope with a surge in illegal migration to the Canaries last year complained of beatings by staff and of a lack of protection from violence by peers, the human rights lobby group said.
"These children should be protected by the Spanish authorities, not left to suffer beatings and abuse," said Simone
Troller, Europe children's rights researcher for Human Rights
Watch.
"The Canary Islands government should close these centres and arrange better care for the children."
'Blood in the boy's mouth'
More than 5 000 Africans have arrived so far this year in
the Canaries after surviving dangerous sea journeys for hundreds
of miles in wooden boats. Hoping for work in Europe, they are
locked in detention centres prior to repatriation.
At the centres for children, inmates are particularly
vulnerable, and lack access to education or recreation. At one
centre, some children said a staff member had sexually harassed
them and others complained of violence, said Human Rights Watch.
"One boy got into trouble with (a staff member). That day the (staff member) took him to the shower and beat him up. There
was blood in the boy's mouth and his clothes were full of
blood," said a 17-year-old boy at the La Esperanza centre,
according to Human Rights Watch.
'Close down the centres'
Another boy said: "When we tell them that we are hungry they
tell us that we were starving in Senegal and should be happy to
be given food at all."
But the Canary Islands' regional government said it had
initiated an internal investigation in February after Human
Rights Watch first told it of the abuses described in the report
only presented on Thursday and found no evidence for them.
"The Canary Islands asked for more detailed information, but
the organisation (Human Rights Watch) refused to provide it,"
the islands' government said.
It added that it also wants to close down the centres and
said the national Spanish government had failed to meet a
commitment to transfer more of the children to the mainland.