Bill would require regions to take in unaccompanied migrant minors

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The bill would declare an extraordinary migration contingency in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla when the minor protection system is over 150% of its available places. In that case, the State would decide which autonomous community each minor is moved to.
2. It would create a management model for these emergencies, agreed at the Sectoral Conference on Children and Adolescents, with objective criteria to distribute minors and regulate their referral to other autonomous communities.
3. The response plan sets specific deadlines: the minor would be registered in the Register of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors within 24 hours of being processed, and the transfer to the destination community would take place within a maximum of 15 calendar days, with the minor being heard and the Public Prosecutor involved.
4. The plan's application criteria would be binding on all autonomous communities. A repeated and unjustified refusal to comply could be considered a very serious offense with disciplinary liability.
5. Entities and people who regularly work caring for these minors would have to report the location of unaccompanied foreign minors to the authorities. Failing to do so would be a punishable offense.
6. The plan's application criteria must be approved within three months of the law taking effect, and minors already in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla would have to be relocated within a maximum of one year.

Who it affects

• Unaccompanied foreign minors in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla: They could be moved to another autonomous community, where they would come under the guardianship of its child protection services.
• Autonomous communities and autonomous cities: They would have to take in the minors assigned to them and comply with the binding plan criteria.
• Entities and people caring for these minors: They would have to report the location of unaccompanied minors to the authorities.
• Public Prosecutor (Ministerio Fiscal): Would take part in transfer proceedings and could act on their own initiative at any stage.

Words worth knowing

Menor extranjero no acompañado

A minor who arrives in Spain without their parents or a responsible adult.

Tutela

Legal care and representation of a minor, assumed by the public administration when the minor is in a situation of neglect.

Contingencia migratoria extraordinaria

A migration situation so intense that it exceeds a territory's normal reception capacity.

Conferencia Sectorial de Infancia y Adolescencia

A body where the State and the autonomous communities meet to agree on children's affairs.

Proposición de ley

A bill tabled by parliamentary groups, which still must be debated and passed by the Congress.

It summarizes the text as it was introduced. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries