"Look, here they are," says Rana from the neighborhood association from Ceuta's Moroccan neighborhood of El Principe. By "here" she means the soccer field of a local school, and "they" are dozens of unaccompanied minors who have been housed there for a good two weeks - all of them girls.
Some of them have formed a circle and are playing with a ball. They are exuberant. “Do you hear them screaming?” asks Rana. She is an impressive presence in a flowing light robe and with faded henna tattoos on her hands. "Some of the girls were raped, they brought them here, set up portable toilets for them. Most of them sleep here."
The rear area of the soccer field is covered with blue plastic sheets. Dozens of girls are accommodated under this roof, there are mattresses and carpets for seating. Additional tarpaulins protect from prying eyes and give the girls at least a touch of privacy.
Girls had to sleep on the streets
Fatima is 17 years old and originally comes from the coastal city of Tangier in northwest Morocco. She has been in Ceuta since July 31 and says that she and other girls initially had no place to sleep: "We stayed on the streets and suffered a lot until we found this association that welcomed us here and didn't allow the young men to come near us. And on the contrary, here are young men who don't let anyone in. Even if it was your own grandfather who wanted to visit you, they wouldn't let him through."
She came to Ceuta in search of a better future and to support her parents. "My mother works from morning to 7 p.m. making the rghaif fried bread. Because she works so much, her hands are completely white and she can no longer move them. We are now asking the Spanish authorities to help us and not send us back to Morocco."
Ihsane, who says she is also 17, joins us. Before she crossed the border to Ceuta, she already had a long walk behind her. The petite girl with the mischievous curly hair walked more than 60 kilometers, from Tangier in the northwest of Morocco to Tétouan in the northeast. "We don't have a lot of money, we live in modest circumstances. I studied at school, worked and played football," she says. "I worked with my mother in a tailor shop to help her make ends meet. She is the only one who supports us, no one else."
No improvement in the past two weeks
Helpers brought a carload of food packages, and people from the neighborhood association are organizing the food distribution. Ahmed Enfedal rushes in. The president of the neighborhood association has just returned from a meeting with the city. When we asked if the meeting was productive, he waved it off. "A lot of blah-blah, ultimately not. They talk about security, about trash. And I want them to talk about the girls. I don't care about the rest."
In the two weeks since they set up the shelter, little has changed, says Ahmed. Around 86 girls were taken by the authorities to an alternative youth facility, especially for girls. "And we are still waiting for the remaining girls who have been registered with us, who have already been confirmed and divided into groups of three, to be picked up."
When asked what future awaits these and other girls, Ahmed's expression darkens. That's a different issue: "I'm pessimistic because both the state and Morocco are trying to conclude a bilateral agreement to send all these girls back to where they came from. And I'm just saying that the International Convention on the Rights of the Child must be respected. It's that simple."
"This is a European problem"
Unaccompanied minors enjoy special protection. For example, they may only be returned to their home country if it is certain that they can be well looked after there. So it's quite possible that many of them will be stuck in Ceuta for quite a while.
Several thousand migrants are still in the city, including unaccompanied minors, refugees from war zones and adults looking for a better life. It is a challenge for the small town with almost 84,000 inhabitants, says Ahmed Enfedal.
Ceuta will not be able to permanently accept all the minors who are staying here. That's not the city's job either: "There is mainland Spain. There is Europe. If we talk about Ceuta being part of Europe, then this is a European problem. And if it is a European problem, then Europe itself, as a whole, has to find a solution to it."
