The Secretary of State for Youth and Children, Rubén Pérez Correa, trusts that the plan to urgently transfer the 500 girls who remain in Ceuta to the Peninsula can begin in "a few weeks." He has admitted, however, that the Government has not sent to the Ceutí executive, as its president Juan Manuel Vivas has demanded, a specific proposal for the transfers of those minors who are considered to be in a more vulnerable situation.
"If what the government of Ceuta wants is a concrete proposal, of course it will have it," Pérez Correa responded in an interview on RNE when asked if Vivas was lying when he assured that he had not presented a plan to transfer the girls to the autonomous city, which is responsible for the guardianship of unaccompanied minors.
Pérez Correa has framed Vivas' statements "in the framework of a very complex press conference with his own secretary general (Alberto Núñez Feijóo) publicly saying no to that situation", and has guaranteed that the initiative has "been transferred not only to the councils of the Ceuta Government, but also to its own president."
"We have been working since this week with companies and social entities and, obviously, we will make a concrete proposal, even with the allocation of part of those funds that we have provided to the city, we understand that it must be substantiated in an agreement that the city has to sign with the entity as has already been done on numerous occasions," he argued. He also explained that individualized files are prepared for each girl "because in a situation of saturated resources, it is a danger especially for girls."
Regarding deadlines, he explained that this procedure "is much faster than that of the Royal Decree Law" and gave as an example the one carried out when the Supreme Court forced the State to take care of the minors from the Canary Islands who had requested asylum. "We were able to ensure that in a very short period of time, practically meeting the horizon of one month, more than 600 children from the Canary Islands were able to access the resources of these entities with which we have spoken, which are the ones that have places in the Peninsula."
As he has indicated, "the State operation, the Ministry of Equality, the Ministry of Inclusion, the Ministry of Youth and Children, the Ministry of the Interior, can do it, the only thing missing is the will of Ceuta which, based on what has been discussed with the city, with its minors' area, with its Presidency advisor, it is an option that is on the table."
"It is feasible that if we roll up our sleeves, we will be able to have these girls in resources within a few weeks," said Pérez Correa.
Criticism of the PP strategy
On the other hand, the Secretary of State has reiterated his criticism of the PP's request to return all migrants, including minors. "Minors, due to very clear legislation that the PP knows and that applies in the autonomous communities where it governs, end up in the protection system," he recalled.
Asked when Ceuta will return to normality, Pérez Correa indicated that it will be "when it has 29 minors in the protection system", as established by law. Thus, he assured that he understands that "the city becomes desperate" when there are thousands of children in the system, but that currently Spain "is not capable" of finding a "mechanism" due to the appeals filed by the PP.
"The Popular Party has filed more than 40 appeals against the transfers of minors to the peninsula. We have had to force the prosecutor's offices to tell the councilors and general directors that the laws, the royal decrees, are complied with," he criticized.
