International

Underage Migrants a Growing Problem in Spain

By Jerome Socolovsky

Published August 20, 2007 at 1:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Spain's crackdown on illegal immigration appears to be reducing the number of arrivals, but underage migrants are becoming a growing problem. Unlike the adult migrants, minors coming alone cannot be sent back easily to their native lands.

Absorption centers in the southern Mediterranean coast are filled to capacity with young Moroccans who crossed the strait of Gibraltar this summer. A rights group criticizes Spain for holding children in the Canary Islands in "prisonlike" conditions. The imam of Madrid's largest mosque calls these unaccompanied youngsters a "time bomb."

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International

Jerome Socolovsky

Jerome Socolovsky is the Audio Storytelling Specialist for NPR Training. He has been a reporter and editor for more than two decades, mostly overseas. Socolovsky filed stories for NPR on bullfighting, bullet trains, the Madrid bombings and much more from Spain between 2002 and 2010. He has also been a foreign and international justice correspondent for The Associated Press, religion reporter for the Voice of America and editor-in-chief of Religion News Service. He won the Religion News Association's TV reporting award in 2013 and 2014 and an honorable mention from the Association of International Broadcasters in 2011. Socolovsky speaks five languages in addition to his native Spanish and English. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and graduate degrees from Hebrew University and the Harvard Kennedy School. He's also a sculler and a home DIY nut.