Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Friday began sending back some 800 unaccompanied migrant minors to Morocco three months after they arrived en mass, an official said.
The minors were among up to 10,000 migrants who flooded across the land border into Ceuta over several days in May as Moroccan border guards stood aside.
This was widely seen as retaliation over Spain’s decision to host Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario Front, a movement demanding Western Sahara be independent from Morocco, for medical treatment.
Local daily El Faro de Ceuta published images of minors being escorted by police to the Moroccan border on Friday.
Contacted by AFP, a source at the central government’s representative office in Ceuta, who refused to be named, confirmed the evictions had started.
