Photos of Teen Migrants Stranded on Europe's Borders

This article originally appeared on VICE France.

Ceuta is a Spanish coastal city, located at the extreme northern tip of Morocco. Together with Melilla, a town close to the Algerian border, the two cities are Spanish exclaves; pieces of land that, while part of Spain’s territory, are not attached to it. Officially, they’re part of Europe, separated from Morocco only by fences and walls. They’ve both long been key entry points for migrants and refugees seeking a foothold in Europe, with the Spanish government investing millions in security to try to keep them out.

Between the 17th and 18th of May 2021, more than 8,000 people, including up to 2,000 suspected minors, crossed into Ceuta, most of them by swimming around the city’s border fence that juts out into the Mediterranean. Within hours, the Spanish police and military had started forcibly returning the new arrivals en masse, kicking out up to 7,000 people without even attempting to process their asylum claims. Photos and video footage also showed the Spanish police and military beating migrants and seemingly throwing them back at sea. These latest abuses come after decades of accusations by human rights organisations about the treatment of migrants in the territory.

Virginia Álvarez, head of internal policy at Amnesty International Spain, warned that the speed and scale of these returns were incompatible with a responsible and lawful treatment of migrants. “A large arrival of people is not an excuse for illegal collective expulsion,” she said. “There may be individuals eligible for asylum or in need of protection. Pushing people back is unlawful and denies them their right to a fair and individualised evaluation of their asylum claims.” 

Although migrants regularly attempt to cross Ceuta’s fortified borders, this sudden surge in arrivals was unusual. Historically, Morocco has collaborated with Spanish authorities to help keep migrants away from the fence. Just in March 2021, Moroccan police allegedly burned down a number of makeshift migrant camps, arresting more than 100 male migrants and relocating dozens of women and children to areas far from the border.

That’s why experts believe the recent migration influx represents a new development in relations between the two countries. Although Morocco has not directly commented on why it relaxed its border checks, analysts think the move came as retaliation against Spain’s decision to let the leader of a militant group wanted by the Moroccan government receive treatment in a Spanish hospital.

Ten days after the events in May, French photographer Hervé Lequeux travelled to Ceuta to chronicle the daily lives of the 438 unaccompanied minors who remained in the exclave after the mass return. Soon after they crossed into the country, the minors – some barely in their teens – were rounded up and housed in warehouses turned youth centres where they had to stay for a minimum of 10 days of mandatory quarantine.

According to Spanish newspapers El País and El Diario, minors said the youth centres didn’t have enough food, beds or bathrooms for everyone. Some had to sleep on the ground and skip meals, surviving for days on only snacks. The toilets quickly became unsanitary. That’s why many of them snuck out of the centres and set up makeshift camps on the beaches and in vacant buildings or on lots in residential areas.

Those who could make the climb relocated to the highlands further from Ceuta’s coast. There, they are exposed to harsh weather and strong winds that would wear anyone out both physically and mentally, but they’re also less likely to be rounded up by the police.

Some of the young migrants, mostly between the ages of 16 and 17, spend their days panhandling outside big supermarkets or fishing and grilling their catch. Their lives are repetitive and marked by a daily struggle for food and shelter. A few mosques in the city provide them with small pre-packed meals. NGOs and other aid organisations also give them clothes and take down their details, offering to notify their families in case they are deported back to Morocco. 

Other teens count on help from locals, who sometimes distribute meals and water to them from the boots of their cars. But occasional charitable acts aside, relations between migrants and longterm residents of Ceuta are often tense. Ceuta hasn’t had a large COVID-19 outbreak yet and the arrival of large numbers of migrants has people worried there will be a spike in cases. 

Eventually, some of these teens end up heading back to Morocco, abandoning their hopes for a better life in Europe, at least for the time being. But for many, the European dream is hard to let go of – some say they can’t remember a time when their parents weren’t talking about it. That’s why many of them end up doing odd jobs and panhandling to raise the €250 necessary to buy a small boat to try to cross the perilous straits of Gibraltar to continental Europe.

Others, especially those who camp near the port, try time and time again to hide in trucks or boats headed to the same destination. It’s a tough life, and even if they make it, they’re likely not going to be welcome anywhere they set foot.

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