The Fundación Raíces has reported the disappearance of A.A., a 14-year-old minor from Gambia, about whom, a year ago, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child requested the Spanish State to take "provisional measures" to protect him by transferring him to a center for minors.
According to the foundation, the minor arrived in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria without family protection at the age of 13, in August 2023, and was subsequently transferred by authorities to the island of Tenerife and various mainland provinces, until he ended up on the streets of Madrid in October 2023, treated as an adult despite carrying a photocopy of his documentation proving his minority.
For several months, he spent nights in overnight shelters and days wandering outdoors until an organization, noticing his obvious childlike appearance, referred his case to the Fundación Raíces, an NGO specialized in defending the rights of migrant children without family protection.
This entity reveals that A.A. had applied for a passport in Gambia before migrating, and by the end of 2023, he received his original passport. On the same day, accompanied by a lawyer from Fundación Raíces, he went to the Gambian Embassy in Spain for them to examine the passport. The Embassy certified that "A.A., was born on December 9, 2009, in Fajikunda, Gambia," and that "the passport is valid and authentic."
Immediately after this, Fundación Raíces made him available to the Child Protection Services of the Community of Madrid, and that same night, the boy entered a minors’ protection center in the city. In addition, a few weeks later, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested a forensic report from the police on the authenticity of the passport, which concluded that there were no signs of falsification. Despite this, the foundation states that the Prosecutor issued a Decree of Majority due to doubts about the reliability of the data.
As a result, the Public Entity for the Protection of Minors of the Community of Madrid notified the minor that the protection measure would cease, and the minor was expelled onto the streets on February 12, 2024.
A.A., represented by Fundación Raíces, had requested urgent protective measures from the Courts of First Instance of Madrid ten days before and, with no response, on February 8, requested the intervention of the UN due to the imminent abandonment situation he faced.
On February 14, already expelled from the protection center, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child agreed to the requested protective measures to prevent irreparable harm to the child. They asked the Spanish State to take provisional measures to transfer him to a minors’ protection center while his case was pending examination by the Committee.
Fundación Raíces forwarded the UN’s communication to the Youth Prosecutor’s Office of Madrid, the Commission for Child Protection in Madrid, the Court of First Instance, and the Interministerial Commission for Coordination on Treaties and other International Agreements. They sent letters to various Ministries, the Ombudsman, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Government Delegate in Madrid, among others, urging each of them to take the necessary measures to provide proper provisional protection to the child.
However, the Fundación Raíces denounces that "no one took the measure, no one assumed responsibility, and the UN’s call to Spain," and "A.A. disappeared, exhausted, in a state of abandonment as a child, unable to exercise any rights as an adult, and with no hope that Spanish authorities would protect him adequately in the short or medium term."
According to the organization, the minor fled Madrid and, after an intense search, his lawyer at Fundación Raíces managed to contact him. He revealed that he had gone to France with "the help of a man" and was in a minors’ residence in France, asking not to be searched for anymore.
FEAR OF FALLING INTO AN EXPLOITATION NETWORK
Fundación Raíces points out that it tried to verify this by contacting the French child protection system and other professionals in the country, but as of today, it has not been able to confirm the child’s statement.
Therefore, they fear that he may have fallen into a child exploitation network since these networks, in their modus operandi, "pressure to send such messages and cease the search for the minor."
The organization explains that, despite these facts being brought to the attention of the courts with requests to continue proceedings, validate documents, and order A.A.’s protection, "both the Court of First Instance and the Provincial Court of Madrid have recently notified Fundación Raíces of resolutions archiving the proceedings."
Specifically, the Provincial Court of Madrid states that, procedurally, it was possible to have taken precautionary measures in the legal process initiated over a year ago.
In 2024, Fundación Raíces defended the rights of 108 boys and girls who had been mistakenly identified as adults by the Prosecutor’s Office and identified 75 boys and girls in distress in the Community of Madrid, most of whom had been transferred from the Canary Islands, making them available to the Child Protection System.
These children come from Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Gambia, Cameroon, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, and Burundi, aged between 14 and 17 years. In 27 of these cases, it has been acknowledged that they were indeed minors, as stated by the foundation.
Furthermore, they are currently defending over 60 age determination processes, either with the Prosecutor’s Office or in court.
Fundación Raíces recalls that the United Nations has already issued 14 Opinions in favor of 14 minors, in which the Committee on the Rights of the Child considers that the age determination process in Spain has violated the rights of children to preserve their identity by attributing a different date of birth than their own, despite having an original passport, Consular Registration Certificate, Certificate of Authenticity, and/or National Identity Card, and that the State’s obligation to protect and assist these children has also been breached.
The organization remembers that over three years ago, Spain committed, as reflected in the Law on the Protection of Children against Violence (LOPIVI), to modify the Age Determination process. In this respect, although they believe it is "two years late" and that there are points to correct in the amendment phase, Fundación Raíces has welcomed the fact that a Law on Age Assessment is currently in the parliamentary phase.
