HIBAPRESS – Mohammed Zariouh
The Spanish National Police arrested a Moroccan citizen who works as a university professor, on suspicion of his involvement in the deliberate abandonment of his minor children in northern Spain, in an attempt to obtain benefits from the social protection system.
The incident sparked great interest in media and legal circles, especially with the details of the investigations that reveal the father's direction to his children to present themselves as minors in a state of neglect to the Spanish authorities. According to preliminary investigations, the father took his two children to the city of Bilbao, where he instructed them to present themselves as neglected children, then left for Morocco, leaving them under the care of Spanish social institutions. The two children were housed in care centers in the Basque Country before being transferred to protection centers in the Gipuzkoa region, where the children admitted to the investigators that the operation was planned in advance in coordination with their father. In a later development, the Spanish authorities received information about the father's return to Spain, to locate him in the city of Algeciras before arresting him in the city of San Sebastian, where he was accused of neglecting his children. Investigations are ongoing to reveal new details about the motives behind this act. Despite the legal and humanitarian controversy that the case raised, the father expressed his desire to regain his children, and indeed the family was reunited voluntarily. The Spanish authorities confirm that these incidents highlight the legal challenges posed by such cases, which require more measures to protect children's rights.
