It's 8 a.m. at the Tarajal industrial park in the autonomous city of Ceuta. But there are no workers and truck drivers to be seen near the warehouses today. Instead, there are makeshift tents, some of them made out of cardboard, with mainly children and teenagers sleeping under dirty blankets.
According to certain estimates, there could be between 3,000 and 5,000 unaccompanied minors in Ceuta. Some are living on the streets because they cannot find a spot in one of the already overcrowded reception facilities in the enclave. Amina (not her real name), a 14-year-old Moroccan girl, and her brother were among the 80,000 people who crossed the border into Spain from Morocco in late July.
Though most of these have since left Ceuta, some 9,000 remain, according to the local authorities — and many are minors. " What's worst is that we don't have toilets," said Amina. "We have to go somewhere in the bushes, but I don't dare go alone." Close by is a Moroccan woman called Malika (also not her real name) who has spread out several blankets for herself and her four children.
She told DW she was not making enough as a cleaning lady in Morocco, adding that she earned the equivalent of €7 ($8) per day. "That's just not enough to provide for everyone," she said. "School will start again soon, and I don't have any money for books, nor even decent clothes for the children." That's why she decided to take part in the mass crossing of the Spanish border last month when she read about it on social media.
But now she doesn't know what to do. He had a high fever, but I couldn't get help anywhere," she said. In the end, she made compresses with water and vinegar to see if that would help.
But now she is particularly worried about her 12-and 14-year-old daughters, because the number of sexual assaults has risen sharply in the past week. Police are currently investigating at least 15 suspected cases of rape. The local authorities suspect the actual number of cases to be much higher.
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