Spain, gang trafficking migrant girls for sexual exploitation dismantled

The operation comes at a time when the immigration debate has returned forcefully to the fore across Europe, after a massive border crossing between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Ceuta late last month left hundreds of unaccompanied minors stranded in the city.

The Civil Guard said the investigation began after a migrant girlwho had been entrusted to the authorities of Gran Canaria, returned to Spain from France and told investigators that she had been recruited with the promise of a job.

Investigators later identified several similar cases concerning girls who had left reception centers without their documents and who were then put on flights to mainland Spain, the Guardia Civil explained in a statement.

The organization allegedly exploited the girls’ vulnerability, offering them help to leave the Canary Islands, providing false identity or travel documents and organizing their travel by air and land.

“All this with the aim of facilitate their departure from the islands and the subsequent transfer to mainland Spain and France, where some of them were victims of sexual exploitation”, reports the Guardia Civil.

The Civil Guard informs that it has rescued two victims and having prevented four other minors from leaving the islands. Five people have been arrested, including a minor, after five searches carried out in Gran Canaria.

Some 72,000 migrants crossed the Ceuta border in an unprecedented and deadly influx between July 30 and 31, and 70,000 of them then returned to Morocco, according to Spanish government data.

The Spanish Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Regosaid last Friday that 1,342 unaccompanied migrant children had been registered in Ceuta following the massive influx from Morocco. Humanitarian organizations have warned that i Minormany of whom sleep outdoors on the streets of Ceuta, they are at risk of abuse and exploitation.