The Interministerial Immigration Commission of the Government of Spain has today reported on the evolution of the relocations of unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents.
The different departments have agreed that the work being carried out by the Government of Spain “is positive” and that the transfers and care are being carried out “with a very wide normality”, since it began to relocate throughout the territory unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents who remained in the autonomous communities or cities declared in immigration contingency: Ceuta, Melilla and Canarias.
In total, 803 minors have been transferred to the present day from these territories to the rest of the autonomous communities.
The relocations made, following the amendment of article 35 of the Law on the Rights and Freedoms of Foreigners in Spain and their Social Integration, are 395. Added to these are the 408 children and adolescents seeking asylum who have been transferred from the Canary Islands to devices specifically open on the peninsula and integrated into the International Protection System.
The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has moved that this week another 28 minors seeking international protection will be relocated to several centers, one of them newly opened.
The President of the Commission, Minister Ángel Víctor Torres, stressed that thanks to the modification of the Law on Foreigners and the attention that the Government of Spain is giving from the state reception system “in seven months it has been possible to relocate more minors than in many years together, when there was no specific law and when voluntary solidarity between the territories did not produce results”.
For Torres “the amendment of the Law has been a very important milestone in the care of these children and is developing successfully despite the continuous obstacles that the opposition has put in place, even with resources before the Constitutional Court.”
Compliance with the Law
The minister has highlighted the commitment of the Government of Spain to migrant children and the improvement of its attention with the application of the Law on Foreigners, modified by means of a Royal Decree-Law on March 19, 2025. A law that establishes a period of one year for the relocation of unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents who were in the communities in immigration contingency before the entry into force of the legislative amendment.
In the same way, Torres recalls that the Law grants a period of four months to complete the process since the autonomous communities in contingency send the files of minors to the Government of Spain: “That is to say, in order to meet the deadline of one year and have all these children relocated in March 2026, the autonomous communities would have had to send all the files last November, and, in the case of the Canary Islands - territory with more children - where there are approximately 1,700, according to the regional executive, only 536 files have reached us so far.”
Torres assures that he is aware of the difficulties, but is committed to continue making all necessary efforts and working with absolute collaboration with the autonomous communities.
Composition of the Interministerial Commission on Immigration
- Ministry of Youth and Children
- Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation
- Ministry of the Interior
- Ministry of Labour and Social Economy
- Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030
- Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory (Presidency)
