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Workers of a center for migrant minors in Gran Canaria denounce rapes and prostitution within the premises

2021-06-18T02:40:28.227Z


The report sent to the Mogán City Council maintains that there are also various and repeated physical attacks on adolescents by some employees in the Porto Bello apartment complex


An anonymous complaint from, supposedly, a group of workers from a center for unaccompanied migrant minors in the municipality of Mogán (south of Gran Canaria) have presented a report to the town council in which they denounce "repeated sexual assaults" committed by of legal age within the premises and the exercise of prostitution by minors under guardianship "both inside and outside" the facilities. In their brief, the employees also maintain that the management has evidence that "at least three of the minors from the center" have practiced prostitution both within the center with other minors and outside it with people outside the center, who, “Supposedly”, they are of legal age.

The complaints do not stop here. In their letter, the employees also detail "physical attacks and continued mistreatment" by some workers, deficiencies in health care or poor living and hygiene conditions in the facilities. They argue, in turn, that these "negligent" episodes are "allowed and encouraged" both by the "past and current leadership of the center."

The workers assure that the management of the center has known the situation for weeks without their managers "having done anything to prevent them."

The center is located in the Porto Bello apartment complex, in the tourist town of Puerto Rico, and is managed by the XXI Century Social Response Foundation.

The guardianship of these people, as is the case with the approximately 2,700 unaccompanied migrant minors in the islands, corresponds to the Ministry of Social Rights of the Government of the Canary Islands.

Condition of one of the rooms in the juvenile center set up in the Porto Bello apartments, in an image provided by the staff.

The Minister of

Social

Rights

, Equality, Diversity and Youth, Noemí Santana, explained this Tuesday that her department received an anonymous email on May 31 and that, despite no sender, an internal investigation was opened "in collaboration with the entity that provides service ”and the Canary Islands Autonomous Police due to“ the seriousness of the events ”. "The Ministry is going to act forcefully," he said in statements to the media.

The chief prosecutor of the province of Las Palmas, Beatriz Sánchez, has assured EL PAÍS that the agency has observed the evolution of this complex since in February there were altercations inside that caused the destruction of several areas and that it had urged verbally to the General Directorate of Minors of the Canary Government the eviction of the facilities. The Civil Guard has explained that it is "proving" ex officio the veracity of the report and that no worker has reported the events so far. Sánchez summoned the director of the center on Tuesday to find out his version of events. According to Santana, the management of the center has explained to the General Directorate for Minors that "at no time" has it had knowledge of these events, not by workers "or by any other means",which contradicts the content of the complaint.

The counselor, in addition, explained in statements to the media that her department has been "many months" ensuring that the use of tourist complexes to house unaccompanied minors "is not suitable" and that the closure of these facilities "constitutes a priority."

Currently, according to their data, Porto Bello houses 121 people, compared to the 170 that it hosted at the beginning of the year, and today 43 minors will be transferred to other resources.

An escaped minor

According to the statement made public, one of the assistants informed the educational team at the beginning of March that several minors had informed her of "repeated sexual assaults by two of the users of the center."

These two "users" had been reported as of legal age and, nevertheless, remained in the facilities.

At this moment, the minor attacked is on the run.

The reasons, according to his colleagues, was "to avoid these aggressions and

bullying

[harassment] that he suffered from some of the minors in the center who ridiculed his situation."

More information

  • Another immigration crisis without a plan to care for minors

  • The evicted from the migration crisis in the Canary Islands

After carrying out several investigations, the educational team asked the management to reinforce night shifts to avoid such situations and make the corresponding complaint. In their letter, the staff maintains that the managers communicated to them at that time "that they would take care of all this." “The reality”, they affirm, “is that as of today the corresponding complaint has not been filed, the night shifts have not been reinforced, the minor continues to escape and despite the fact that the management has information on his whereabouts, they have not done nothing to try to help him ”.

In February, several rooms in the complex were seriously damaged as a result of "a riot" of some of the minors.

After the events, the center took weeks to recover normality since, according to the staff, the "director at that time ordered the only maintenance worker there, to paint and refurbish his new office."

In any case, the educational staff maintains that the minors "have been living in terrible conditions for all these months."

Tension for minors

The care of minors constitutes one of the points of friction between the Canarian Government and the central one.

The upturn in arrivals since 2019 forced the Executive to hastily deploy more than 20 reception centers, managed by private organizations.

The head of Social Affairs, Noemí Santana, has repeatedly assured that the archipelago is "overflowing."

In December, Madrid approved an aid of 10 million euros to cover part of the costs, which the Canary Islands figure at 18 million.

The Ombudsman, Francisco Fernández Marugán, reproached the new Minister of Social Affairs of the Spanish Government, Ione Belarra, in the middle of the month that “it is not reasonable that the services for the protection of minors in the Canary Islands take on the challenge of reception alone. ”.

Source: elparis

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