The Patra Travel that brought Mohamed to Spain in the summer of 2016 began long before going to the sea in full morning.
The planning was very intense and spent almost a year until he gave that man waiting on the shore 450 euros that his family had saved.
From the crossing remembers the cold, the noise of the waves and the darkness.
That and that none had lifebuoy.
Mohamed, musician in Algeria, reached the coast of Cartagena with 17 newly complied with.
After being intercepted, he was transferred to the minor reception center of Alicante, where he intelligence caught the attention of educators.
They were aware that the clock ran against because the boy would soon be able to fulfill the age of majority and would then be out of the protection system.
Mohamed would leave there with a residence card but without work permission, which was equal to nothing, because to renew the first the demands happened to demonstrate revenues of 2,000 euros.
A chimera.
Cases like yours are accounted for thousands in Spain and are those that have motivated the reform of the Aliens Act that the Government announced a few days ago and that will facilitate the former roles by fulfilling the age of majority.
The measure will affect 8,000 minors, known as Menas, and 7,000 young people from 18 to 23 years.
The change aims to favor integration and avoid cases such as Mohamed and so many migrants who did not find lace in their transition to adult life.
The revision of the regulations also will also access the work world of unaccompanied foreign minors because when they leave the centers they will also do it with work permit, something that did not tell Mohamed.
Where appropriate, at the time he stopped being under the umbrella of the administration, the lack of places in tutorial floors led him to live for three months in a municipal hostel, honoring the exclusion that now the Ministry of Migration aspires to
to avoid.
However, is this reform of the Regulation of Aliens the solution to a problem that has been chronized?
Can it be translated into a call or finally regulates a situation that has trapped thousands of minors for years condemning them to settle on the margins of legality?
The range of opinions is extensive and heterogeneous.
Even among his defenders there are reservations.
In the Spanish immigration network and refugee aid are favorable to reform, but skeptical in its application.
“We agree that it is an essential step, but to process it, documents and these documents have to be remitted from consulates and embassies of countries of origin.
Some put it easy and others, impossible, “Razona his president, Rafael Escudero.
They warn that there may be reluctance because “many do not trust the system”
In addition, it points to another possible problem related to the lack of means before the avalanche of procedures that adventure.
“Is the personnel of the government delegations, which are the ones who have to process all the documentation have to be strengthened?
Although the residence and work papers are derived, it does not mean that there are means.
Of course, to launch this reform is necessary an important deployment of economic resources to avoid the collapse of the autonomous communities.
The entities that will be responsible for these procedures must be reinforced, “Alert Escudero.
It also fails the absence of contacts by the executive with the NGOs to profile a reform that these groups have been claiming years and stops in the disenchantment that young people have internalized.
«Where are the NGO aid that we accompany you?
Many remain in indigence.
There are severe exclusion situations.
Many of them no longer trust the system and doubt that things are going to be fixed to those 7,000 of those who speak the government in a magical way, “he stands out.
The defender of the people in functions, Francisco Fernández Marugán, approached the reform from the theory and held it because, in his opinion, will prevent migrant minors from being separated from the system as now.
“I hope that the girls and girls tutored, when they reach the 18 years, can be formed and integrated into working life.”
On the opposite side, Vox is located, which does not accommodate change.
According to the match, it will generate a “called effect”.
For Mohamed, this reform supposes “great progress”.
“It prevents us from falling into illegality, as it happened to me.
I had a residence card but no work permit, so at two years I was left without papers.
The residence had expired and asked me to work to renew it, “he says in telephone conversation from France, where he was looking for a job.
“I crossed the sea to find a future that in my country did not have,” he sentence.
To the question about whether the reform of the regulation will serve to attract more immigrants is sharp: “Of course not.
They will continue to come from coming because in our countries we get the idea that there are many opportunities.
It is good that there are guarantees.
I would have liked to welcome me to change. ”
