Spain starts sending 800 migrant minors back to Morocco

Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta on Friday began sending back some 800 unaccompanied migrant minors to Morocco three months after they arrived en mass, an official said.

The minors were among up to 10,000 migrants who flooded across the land border into Ceuta over several days in May as Moroccan border guards stood aside.

This was widely seen as retaliation over Spain's decision to host Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario Front, a movement demanding Western Sahara be independent from Morocco, for medical treatment.

Local daily El Faro de Ceuta published images of minors being escorted by police to the Moroccan border on Friday.

Contacted by AFP, a source at the central government's representative office in Ceuta, who refused to be named, confirmed the evictions had started.

According to Cadena Ser radio, the interior ministry ordered these on August 10.

The NGO Save the Children said it would lodge a complaint to try and put them on hold.

Once a complaint is filed, the decision to send a migrant minor back takes some time, as each case must be evaluated separately.

Many migrants were returned to Morocco soon after they arrived in May.

But at the end of July, some 2,500 remained in Ceuta, according to local leader Juan Rivas.