The clues were more or less concrete. A group of between 30 and 40 Ukrainian minors, accompanied by three adults, would take a ferry from Huelva —or perhaps from Cádiz— to reach the Canary Islands. The promoter of the trip would be a Ukrainian woman residing in Fuerteventura. The information indicated that they would leave the Peninsula on Tuesday and land on the islands on Friday. Call crossing.
The alert mobilized authorities in the Canary Islands, Madrid and Andalusia who, in turn, also activated the police. All of them have spent almost a week trying to locate the group and prevent the trip. Neither can the transfer of children be encouraged without the knowledge of the authorities, nor can the Canary Islands, saturated with the arrival of almost 3,000 minors in the last two years, have the capacity to deal with more. The agents deployed an operation to supervise the ferries on Tuesday, also those on Friday. And even on Saturday. But no trace.
The bizarre story, told by four sources familiar with the case, arises when the Ukrainian woman requests space from the local authorities of the islands to accommodate a large group of children. It was already her second mission. On March 11, she had brought three guardians and 16 minors from an orphanage near kyiv to La Oliva, in Fuerteventura. That time she did it in close collaboration with the mayor of this municipality of 25,000 inhabitants, but she did not coordinate with anyone else. The general direction of childhood, responsible for minors in distress, found out about this reception by the press. On this second occasion, both the La Oliva City Council and the child protection service disavowed the plan. And the doors that the woman knocked on did not open. But she, according to the sources consulted, continued with her mission.
The group of children, however, still does not appear. Was the information not quite correct? Looking for a ghost group? Are they already, as you think, in Spain? Police sources affirm that the group does indeed exist, although no one has seen it. And this despite the odyssey that would involve moving such a large contingent of minors from one place to another without attracting attention.
The Ukrainian woman, who has been receiving calls from the authorities for days to discourage the trip, denies EL PAÍS any connection with the initiative. “I don’t know anything about this subject. Every day, for almost a week, she calls me a different person and asks: ‘Are your children in Huelva?’ What children? What Huelva?’ I don’t know anything about those children, ”she replied, fed up with the matter. “Looking for accommodation is another matter, but I don’t know anything about Huelva. At the moment, I am not expecting any child, ”she settled. Various sources in the Canary Islands insist that she is the one behind this mission, although no one knows where the first clue that links her to the minors in Huelva came from.
The case of these children that no one can find is an example of the lack of control that is increasingly worrying the Spanish and Ukrainian authorities. The warnings about the transfers and the reception without official supervision of minors, the most vulnerable of the war, come in crescendo since the Russian invasion began on February 24. The initiatives to remove children from Ukraine are numerous, but they have to be carried out in accordance with the legislation of the two States, with the corresponding authorizations. Even when organizations or autonomous communities agree with the Ukrainian Embassy itself, the transfer of minors to Spain must also mediate the Spanish State. The Ministry of Justice, specifically, is the Central Authority for the defense of the 1980 Hague Convention, the legal framework to protect children in cross-border situations. And, until now and despite the number of children who have been transferred to Spain, the Ministry of Justice has not received any request, according to the sources consulted.
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Spontaneous and uncontrolled solidarity, although well-intentioned, in addition to not complying with established protocols, can favor criminal activities related to human trafficking and trafficking. This same week, the National Police arrested a Ukrainian man at the South bus station in Madrid who was posing as a relative of two adolescents aged 15 and 16. The agents were already on notice, but the interrogations and the content of the minors’ luggage, “clothes not in accordance with the temperatures of this time of year” and many cosmetic products, confirmed the police’s worst suspicions.
Since the Russian offensive began, almost 14,000 minors have been registered in Spain, 40% of the almost 35,000 displaced persons who already have their papers in order in Spain. Among them, more than a hundred are minors who arrived in the country without the company of adults. There are still hundreds to evacuate.
The fear for the little ones has even resulted in a verbal note sent by the Ukrainian embassy to the Foreign Ministry. In the document, to which EL PAÍS has had access, the appeal of the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, is transmitted to all the States that are receiving children —orphans or not— in their territories. “There is an increasing risk of sibling separation, illegal movement and illegal placement of such children in foreign families or of Ukrainian citizens living abroad,” the note says. Specifically, the text warns about the threat of adoptions taking place without following legal procedures and informs that while the martial law decreed in Ukraine lasts, no adoption can be carried out.