Number of teen and child migrants arriving to Spain doubled last year, new figures show – with the majority coming from Senegal and Morocco

SPAIN took in 4,865 unaccompanied foreign child migrants in 2023, more than twice as many as in the previous year, when 2,375 arrived.

The Attorney General’s Office in its annual report published on Thursday highlighted a ‘notable increase’ in the arrivals of children and adolescents last year.

It said that 58.68% came from Senegal (1,780) and Morocco (1,075), followed by those who arrived from Gambia (657) and Algeria (472).

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Just 5.14% of the child migrants were girls.

The office has emphasised the work required to make sure that underage arrivals are minors.

It is the case that those under 18 years of age are not repatriated to their countries, while adults are- therefore needing extensive inquiries to determine their age.

During 2023, 7,422 proceedings were carried out to determine a migrant’s age.

2,436 turned out to be 18 and older while 1,755 could not be clarified as they left migrant centres before the age could be clarified.

As detailed in the report, 3,231 were minors ‘or a possibility that they were’.

There were serious problems in the Canary Islands with large numbers of migrants being hard to process- irrespective of age.

The Attorney General’s Office has reiterated the need for a reform of the Penal Code to fight criminal people smuggling gangs more effectively.