Ceuta hospital treats migrant girls after alleged rapes

At least four migrant girls under 14 were treated at Ceuta University Hospital after alleged sexual assaults in the days following last week’s mass arrival of migrants from Morocco, according to medical sources cited by Euronews. A National Police investigation has been opened into the alleged rape of one minor who entered Ceuta during the influx, with injuries described as consistent with sexual assault. Doctors and local residents say the girls are sleeping rough because reception centres for minors are full.

The reports add a grim second layer to an episode that was already straining Spain’s border and emergency services. Ceuta’s emergency department is treating hundreds of migrants a day on average with the same staffing as before the surge, Susana Ascaso, an accident and emergency doctor, told Euronews. In that setting, the first bottleneck is triage and basic care; the second is what happens after discharge, when patients have nowhere to go and no stable point of contact with authorities. For children, the gap is more than administrative: a girl who is not identified, housed and placed inside a child-protection system is simply available to whoever finds her first.

Medical sources told Euronews at least five girls, none older than 14, were treated for suspected rape over the past week, and that more than a dozen cases consistent with sexual assault have been seen. The outlet also reports that a boy is believed to have suffered sexual assault. The actual number may be higher because some victims have not filed complaints, a familiar pattern in cases where victims are disoriented, fear retaliation, or do not believe reporting will change their situation.

Local residents in the makeshift settlement of Sidi Embarek, where about 300 people are reported to be crammed together, describe girls arriving in shock after assaults in the hills. Judicial sources cited by Euronews say several attempted sexual assaults were prevented by interventions from residents, suggesting both that attacks are occurring in public spaces and that the closest thing to a protective perimeter is informal neighborhood vigilance. Save the Children has warned that adolescent girls outside formal accommodation face heightened risks of trafficking and sexual exploitation when identification, accommodation and support systems fail.

Ceuta’s authorities are not accused of indifference so much as incapacity. Ascaso describes a “health catastrophe” and warns of the risk of diseases with epidemic potential arriving without the capacity to detect them in an overstretched emergency department, alongside acute cases such as diabetic decompensation and epileptic seizures among people without access to their usual treatment.

The police investigation has so far produced no reported arrests. The girls, Euronews reports, are still on the streets because there is no room for them indoors.