Rescue of migrants from Gambia.Pablo Tosco (Angular)
The Police have explored a way to open criminal proceedings for fraud against Gambian migrants who benefit from the child care system and who turn out to be, after tests carried out by the Prosecutor's Office, of legal age.
The police strategy, which has not borne fruit so far, was tested in Lleida for the first time four months ago.
The Immigration Brigade had detected an increase in cases of young people who have remained under the care of the Generalitat center, at the expense of the public treasury, and who, finally, have been considered adults.
And he thought that opening an investigation into these young people for fraud could be a way to stop that trend.
On October 26, 2023, the Immigration and Borders Brigade (GOE) of Lleida sent a letter to the General Directorate of Children and Adolescence (DGAIA), the Generalitat body that welcomes minors.
The agents wanted to know how much money the administration had spent on the “accommodation, maintenance, health training and legal advice” of a young Gambian who remained in shelters and who, according to a decree from the Prosecutor's Office, ended up being considered of legal age. .
In the document, which EL PAÍS has accessed, the GOE chief inspector asked the Administration for the expenses incurred, also, to “associations, public administrations and non-governmental organizations.”
The police initiative was designed for young people who are arriving from Gambia to the Canary Islands because the Police maintain widespread suspicion that Gambians use false passports to pass themselves off as minors when they are not.
Given the doubts about the veracity of these documents, young people are being subjected to age determination tests, indicated by the scientific community and by jurisprudence for their wide margin of error.
The Supreme Court has held that official documentation presented by minors must prevail unless it has been invalidated by the country of origin.
The objective of this request for information, as confirmed to this newspaper by an official police spokesperson, was to explore the possibility of opening criminal proceedings against the young Gambian for an alleged crime of subsidy fraud.
The Penal Code punishes anyone who obtains “subsidies or aid” from administrations by “falsifying the required conditions.”
In this case, the falsified data would be the age.
The crime provides for a reduced penalty (from three months to one year in prison or the payment of a fine) for amounts that exceed 10,000 euros, but do not reach 100,000.
That is the fork that the police considered, requesting the information to see if they could build a criminal case.
The chief inspector of Immigration promoted the initiative and raised it with the Lleida Prosecutor's Office, which according to the spokesperson gave its approval to explore this avenue.
When consulted by that police office, the chief prosecutor of Lleida, Jorge Lucía Morlans, has “flatly” denied that this request was transferred or that the public ministry has anything to do with this demand for information.
“For the Prosecutor's Office, this line of investigation does not make any sense.
It is an initiative by the police that causes us great surprise,” Lucía explained to this newspaper.
The Lleida Immigration Brigade intended to put together one or two powerful cases to “stop the call effect” and prevent Gambians who happen to be of legal age from benefiting from a reception system that is designed only for minors.
“When the administration is defrauded, money is stopped being used for other minors who do need it,” police sources add.
The police investigations, however, came to a standstill and this strategy has not been proposed again in any other province.
According to the same spokesperson, the reason for this stoppage is that the Generalitat “has not responded” to the letter sent by the authorities.
Asked about this circumstance, a spokesperson for the DGAIA confirmed that the organization had received the request, that it was unaware of its purpose and that, in any case, the administration was going to process it.
“From one day to the next, we were on the street”
The Spanish Administration's general suspicion of Gambian passports seeks to prevent fraud, but it also leaves many young people defenseless who cannot confront the system.
The problem has fully affected Musa and Bakary (not their real names), who left Gambia and arrived in Barcelona via the Canary Islands.
The Police registered them as adults, noting a year of birth different from that indicated on their documentation;
Later, when the passports were sent by the Gambian authorities, that information did not change.
They were subjected to age tests - a radiological examination of the bones of the left hand whose reliability is questioned by national and international organizations - and the Prosecutor's Office concluded that they were adults, so they had to leave the shelter for minors where they were, in the outskirts of Barcelona.
“We have a passport that says we are minors, but, from one day to the next, we were on the street.
They always throw us black people out, it's clear that they don't want us here,” Musa complains.
The difference between being a major or a minor in cases like those of Musa and Bakary is “abysmal,” says their lawyer Albert Parés, a specialist in immigration.
"If they arrive as minors, they take advantage of the protection protocol - which provides them with the documentation to reside and work legally in Spain - but if they are older, the papers cannot be processed," he says.
When the two boys arrived in Barcelona, the Mossos did provisionally accept the date of birth on their passports and that is why they were transferred to a DGAIA reception center.
Parés emphasizes that questioning the validity of a passport issued by another State contravenes the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and international law.
Musa spent eleven months in the reception center, waiting for the results of the tests.
“After three months they should assign us a shelter apartment.
I participated in all the activities and maintained exemplary behavior and it was of no use,” she laments.
Bakary was only there three months and spent them with his soul in suspense.
In November his fears were confirmed: they had to leave the center because they were older.
“They send them to the streets, to make a living... Either you are lucky, or this means living in a tent under the Arc de Triomphe,” criticizes Parés, who has appealed the resolutions on Musa and Bakary, but admits that time is running out.
If the favorable ruling arrives when those affected have already reached the age of majority, the Immigration regulations provide that they can apply for the residence and work permit that would correspond to them as minors, but they must prove means of living in the country.
“What means of living will a person have who has been living on the street and unable to work for several months, from the Prosecutor's Office's resolution until the sentencing,?” he asks.
The Renta Corporación foundation is paying for Musa's studies - the DGAIA stopped paying for school when the Prosecutor's Office decreed his majority - and he now lives with Elisabeth and her family, who were already processing his reception before.
Lamin continues her training in paletería and has found a room in a social shelter.
She receives financial help, shelter and food in exchange for working on the center's tasks.
The two belong to that “small group of lucky people” who have found a place to live.
“I'm better than ever, but I don't know how long this will last.
And it hurts me a lot to see my brothers from Gambia and Senegal sleeping on the street, it is very hard.
It's very cold outside,” Musa confesses.
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