The Prosecutor's Office raises to more than 30 the proceedings for sexual assaults on migrant women in Ceuta: four out of ten affect unaccompanied minors

The State Attorney General's Office reported this Friday that there are more than 30 open procedures for sexual assaults on migrant women in Ceuta since the massive entry recorded on July 30 and 31. In four out of ten cases, the victims are minors who arrived alone in the autonomous city.

The data was communicated after the meeting held at the Public Prosecutor's Office headquarters by the State Attorney General, Teresa Peramato, and the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego. Both focused on the situation of girls, whom they consider the most exposed group within a population that has been enduring the overflow of reception resources for weeks.

The information released by the Prosecutor's Office speaks of procedures and does not specify how many different victims are included in them, what specific facts are being investigated, or what stage each case is in. The opening of these proceedings also does not imply a conviction, but it confirms the magnitude of the sexual violence suffered by migrants during the six weeks since the border crisis.

The number has grown rapidly. During her visit to Ceuta on August 27, Peramato reported 16 sexual assaults with 17 victims. Four days later, the balance reported in Congress already reached 23. The new communication uses a different unit and, therefore, the data cannot be automatically compared, although they do reflect that cases continue to appear and investigations are being opened.

This balance comes as the far-right Vox and other far-right groups reduce the Ceuta crisis to a narrative of fear and collective criminalization. The leader of the far-right, Santiago Abascal, spoke again this Friday of "invasion" and presented the protection of minors as a supposed "institutionalized kidnapping." The more than 30 procedures show a reality that this discourse leaves out. Among those who arrived are women and girls who appear in the investigations as victims of sexual violence, many of them without family members who can protect them.

Turning the entire migrant population into a threat and removing migrant victims from the conversation fuels the dehumanization on which hate speech grows. Four out of ten cases reported by the Prosecutor's Office precisely affect unaccompanied minors, one of the most vulnerable groups in the entire crisis.

500 places to accelerate transfers

Peramato and Rego have agreed on the need to remove part of the children who remain in the city from Ceuta as soon as possible. The minister has reported that the Government has 500 places in the Peninsula to carry out the transfers "in the shortest possible time" and relieve pressure on Ceuta's protection system.

The measure must be executed taking into account the particular circumstances of each minor. The Prosecutor's Office has recalled that any decision must respect Spanish and international law and prioritize the best interest of the child, both in transfers to other communities and in an eventual family reunification.

The Attorney General has also explained to Rego the content of the decree approved on August 7 to reinforce the protection of unaccompanied migrant minors. The document establishes common guidelines for prosecutors and orders them to intervene when the destination administration rejects or hinders the immediate reception of the minors assigned to it.

This instruction obliges delegated prosecutors for minors to act as soon as they become aware of a transfer resolution that has been breached or questioned by the autonomous community responsible for receiving them.