28 March 2012
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Spain-Senegal
Agreement to repatriate unaccompanied minors approved
Agreement with Senegal to prevent the immigration of unaccompanied
minors
On 7 September 2007, the Senate ended parliamentary scrutiny
of the agreement signed in Dakar on 5 December 2006 between Spain
and Senegal "on co-operation in the field of the prevention
of emigration by unaccompanied Senegalese minors, their protection
repatriation and re-insertion", when it announced that it
had no amendments to propose.
Presented as stemming from the need for a "strict co-operation...
in the field of the protection of minors, both to resolve the
problem of unaccompanied Senegalese minors and to prevent it",
within compliance with the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of
Children, it provides for a framework of joint activity that
includes commitments to consolidate a permanent dialogue and
enable the exchange of information for the two countries to protect,
repatriate and re-insert the minors efficiently. The actions
envisaged to fulfil the agreement's goals include prevention
by assisting social and economic development in regions from
which unaccompanied minors emigrate, controlling migrant smuggling
rings and conducting information and awareness raising campaigns
as well as the provision of assistance and protection to these
minors on Spanish territory, and promoting the minors' expulsion
and return to their families or the body responsible for their
care, and their re-insertion.
Within ten days of illegal entry into Spain, Spanish authorities
will transmit any relevant information concerning the children
to their Senegalese counterparts, who will be responsible for
identifying them and their families, and will expedite a document
confirming their nationality within a further 20 days. The competent
Spanish authority will then make any necessary arrangements with
regard to the minors' return to Senegal, in compliance with national
and international legislation, with the two countries guaranteeing
that the return will take place under appropriate conditions.
Senegalese authorities will associate and co-ordinate reception
mechanisms and social resources, public, private and by NGOs
working to take care of minors subjected to repatriations. A
monitoring committee will be established responsible for exchanging
information concerning the arrivals, periods of stay and repatriation
of unaccompanied minors, analysing and evaluating the measures
implemented, and suggest any interventions deemed necessary to
tackle the situation efficiently, producing six-monthly reports.
Spain will fund the protection of unaccompanied minors in its
territory and co-finance prevention, repatriation and re-insertion
activities carried out by Senegal.
On 13 July 2007, Consuelo Rumí, the Secretary of State
for immigration, announced that agreements for the repatriation
of unaccompanied minors were also reached with Morocco and Romania.
Sources
110/000216 (CD) Acuerdo entre la República de Senegal
y el Reino de España sobre cooperación en el ámbito
de la prevención de la emigración de menores de
edad senegaleses no acompañados, su protección,
repatriación y reinserción, hecho en Dakar el 5
de diciembre de 2006, available at: http://www.congreso.es/public_oficiales/L8/CORT/BOCG/A/CG_A371.PDF
(Boletín Oficial de las Cortes Generales, 20.4.2007, Series
A, no. 371).
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