Mr. Juan José Imbroda Ortiz
President of the Autonomous City of Melilla
Plaza de España, 1
Melilla, 52001
Spain

Fax: +952 699 159

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to express my concern about abuses of children in Melilla described in the Human Rights Watch report, Nowhere to Turn: State Abuses of Unaccompanied Migrant Children by Spain and Morocco. The report documents cases of children under the care of Melilla’s Department of Social Welfare who were beaten or ill-treated by Spanish police, abused by staff and other children in residential centers, subjected to arbitrary age determination procedures, denied health, education, and other benefits guaranteed them in Spanish law, or summarily expelled to Morocco.

I urge you to take immediate action to ensure that all unaccompanied migrant children in Melilla have access to safe residential care supervised by trained staff, education, emergency services and other health care, and temporary residency documents, as required by Spanish and international law. The Government of Melilla should provide children with information on their rights under Spanish and international law, including the right to apply for asylum, and permit representatives of humanitarian, legal support, religious, migrants’ and human rights groups to visit residential centers regularly to speak with children. No child should be removed from the Department of Social Welfare’s care without legal justification, adequate notice to the child, and the opportunity for the child to be heard, and no child should be denied rights and services based on arbitrary age determination procedures.

I look forward to receiving your reply, and thank you for your attention to this important human rights matter.

Sincerely,