The Valencian Community to Appeal Constitutional Court Over Migrant Minors Allocation

The Valencian Community will appeal to the Constitutional Court (CC) regarding the allocation of migrant minors, considering it "a clear interference in its own competencies in the field of child protection." The Consell's plenary session on Tuesday authorised the Generalitat's General Counsel to initiate the necessary procedures to file the appeal, as explained by the Consell's spokesperson and Minister of Social Services, Susana Camarero.

The Valencian government will argue that the government's regulation "violates the exclusive competencies of the Valencian Community in social assistance and child protection, as established in Article 148.1.20 of the Spanish Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy."

Camarero criticised that "the government unilaterally establishes criteria that have not been previously debated, agreed upon, or negotiated with the autonomous communities, leading to a clear imposition." The regional vice president asserted that "the interference in competencies will result in a detriment to the quality of care these minors require."

Camarero referred to a "migration crisis" in the Valencian Community caused by the arrival of unaccompanied minors through various routes, whether by boat, from neighbouring communities, or older ones due to its geographical position "facilitating the entry of these minors by boat," others arrive from neighbouring communities and "through humanitarian care programs, from the Directorate General of Humanitarian Care and Social Inclusion of Immigration, with third sector entities, but once on the peninsula, they claim to be minors, thus being attended through the protection system."

"They arrive through the quotas of adults that the government is transferring from the Canary Islands without conducting age tests, and there are approximately between 90 and 100 minors, because we do not know the origin of all of them, from those quotas that the Ministry is transferring, adult quotas among which minors slip through due to not having been tested for age in the Canary Islands," she stated.

All this, according to the minister, has necessitated an increase of 122 residential care places with more than 9 million euros. She highlighted that the places for the care of these minors represent an annual cost of 23 million euros, "of which only 1.2 million euros are received from the Spanish Government's migration program."

Susana Camarero expressed "absolute solidarity with the Canary Islands," but "maximum concern" for the situation of Valencian centres, and stated that she wants "the utmost dignity and quality" to give minors "the future they deserve, and will not allow them to be overcrowded."