Spain grapples with surging number of teenage migrants
Spain is struggling to deal with a sharp increase in unaccompanied minors amid a general surge in migrant arrivals
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Slouched on a bench at a Barcelona police station, five teenagers wait patiently to find out where they will sleep that night: a shelter for young migrants, or on that bench.
The boys from Morocco and Sub-Saharan Africa had all entered southern Spain as unaccompanied minors, crossing from Morocco on what this year has become the biggest migrant route into Europe. Like thousands of other teenagers, mostly Moroccans, they made their way to Barcelona, a city known to many of them for its legendary soccer club.
Authorities are scrambling to provide housing for thousands of new arrivals. While 120 new shelters have been set up, some Moroccan boys end up sleeping in the streets.
To many, life in Spain is not what they had imagined.