DGAIA: A judge forces the Generalitat to protect a minor from Benin whose passport distrusts | News from Catalonia
Marchukou A., a teenager from Benin that resides in Barcelona, is « very happy. » After a complex migratory process, he has won another battle: the one that has been pounding for months with the administration to recognize him as a minor. A judge has given validity to the passport issued by the authorities of the African country, in which it is stated that he is 17 years old. Both the Prosecutor’s Office As the Catalan Generalitat had questioned the reliability of the document, but the magistrate reminds them that, according to the doctrine of the Supreme Court, the passport is valid as long as evidence of their falsehood is not provided.
The adolescent will be integrated into the protection system for foreign minors not accompanied by the General Directorate for Childhood and Adolescence (DGAIA)although for a short time: November 26 reaches the age of majority. Your lawyer, Albert Parés, wants to take advantage of these months so that The Generalitat process the work permit. Marchukou does not waste time: he is doing fishing practices in Mercabarna, although his intention is to form to drive heavy vehicles. « My father, who died, was a truck driver, and I want to be the first of the family to follow his steps, » he explains in a conversation with this newspaper.
He was born in Copargo, a population from the interior of Benin, and spent his childhood in a house that shared with 27 people (his father was married to several women) until he settled with his grandmother. « I worked in the field or to bring water and food to the house, » he explained to the workers of Red Cross who attended him when he arrived in Catalonia. When grandmother died, she decided to migrate to Europe in search of « a better quality of life. » With 13 years he traveled to Algeria, where he spent two years until he could get on a patera that took him to Almería. From there, by bus, he moved to Barcelona and presented himself, without documentation and “totally helpless” at a Mossos police station, according to the file to which the country has accessed.
In June 2023, he was declared in preventive helpless and It was under the protection of the DGAIAwhich installed it in a Children’s Center in Barcelona. The technicians presented him as an orderly, clean, educated, centered young man, wanting to learn and willing to work. But since he had no papers, he had to undergo Prosecutor’s age determination tests. Widely criticized by scientific literature, these tests showed that he was 19 (according to wrist radiology) or 18 years (according to orthopantomography).
The « physical appearance » and medical tests
With the decree of the age of age, Marchukou had to leave the center. It was not completely abandoned because it was allowed to use care resources, social and health insertion. Meanwhile, he had processed the passport on the consulate. He received it in February 2024, when he was already in a free zone shelter. The document certified that he was born in November 2007, so he was then 16 years old. Parés asked that a new forsake file be opened, but DGAIA did nothing. It is that administrative silence that the lawyer has fought with a claim that has been admitted by the judge of First Instance 17 of Barcelona, Elena Campos.
The Prosecutor’s Office and the DGAIA have opposed them to be recognized less because, they say, the documentation is not reliable. The Public Ministry points out that Spain has no agreement or treated with Benin to validate the documentation and that this is « contradictory » with the « physical appearance » of the young man and with medical tests. In the view, the Generalitat alleged something similar: although the passport « seems original », does not attest to age. » Both rely on a report that the police prepared upon arrival in Almeria, when he was wrongly identified with another name (« Marchuk al Hassan ») and another nationality (Algerian).
« I don’t understand why they said I was born in Algeria. I get angry that they acted like this, » says Marchukou. Both he and the lawyer speculate that the error occurred because the majority of patera travelers were Algerians. In the oral hearing, Parés recalled in any case that, except that of the Interior Ministry, « in all documents » (including a certificate of the Civil Registry of Benin) always consists of the same date of birth. He added that, in any case, the validity of the passport prevails.
The judge has proved him right. Campos recalls that the Supreme Court has already resolved how to resolve possible discrepancies between the age indicated by a document and that « derives from physical appearance. » And concludes that, If there is « valid passport »as in this case, it goes ahead even of medical tests. Although you also have to avoid possible fraud, says the judge in tune with the high court, the priority is « the protection » of migrant minors, people who are in Spain « without family » and in a « very vulnerable » situation. The judge concludes that Marchukou has “the right to be under the protection that the law dispenses to the unaccompanied foreign minors« And orders the DGAIA to dictate » immediately « resolutions and measures for protection.
