(AFP) Madrid estimates that 10,000 minor migrants are on Spanish soil alone without their parents and has unblocked 40 million euros ($46.5 million) for regions willing to welcome them, the health ministry said Wednesday.
The new Socialist government, in power for three months, has taken this “exceptional initiative” faced with a “rise in the number of arrivals over the past few months,” it said in a statement.
On Wednesday morning, 49 apparent minors from north Africa arrived on a beach in the southern city of Tarifa on board rickety boats, the central government’s representative office in the Andalusia region told AFP.
The government has set aside “a budget of 40 million euros (to be distributed) among regions to welcome unaccompanied foreign minors,” the ministry said.
