The Interior Ministry of Fernando Grande-Marlaska He has not updated the action protocol with unaccompanied foreign minors, despite the fact that the figure of this group has doubled since Pedro Sánchez’s arrival to La Moncloa. This procedure is extended for several hours and leaves doubts about the origin and age of these young people, according to police sources to La Razón.
The action framework that agents have National Police It was established by the Secretary of State for Security in 2017. On that date, the Ministry of Interior was forced to rethink the mechanisms by increasing the arrivals of these adolescents.
And in 2016, in Spain a total of 3,997 unaccompanied minors were recorded but the figure almost doubled a year later with 6,414 young people. It was at that time that it was decided to take the step of establishing a protocol for agents that are the first link in this group.
However, the government of Pedro Sánchez He has not taken any measure since that date. It should be noted that since the president to Council of Ministers The figure has shot. According to the latest data, of August 2025, it is estimated that there is 18,967 extended young people in our country. 140% more than in 2021.
Despite this arrival flood, the action protocol has not been modified. This instruction unifies the criteria for the correct performance of the State Security Forces and Bodies. Some orders that the agents have to carry out from the first moment they locate the child.
The first of the steps is to communicate as soon as possible to the Provincial Brigade of Immigration and Borders of the National Police, to the Delegation or Subdelegation of the Government and the Fiscal Ministry. If the minority of age is indubected the process is accelerated. They have to perform the review proceedings, it is checked and registered in the Registration of unaccompanied foreign minors (Rmena) If it was not, and immediately delivered from the minor to the public entity for the protection of minors.
THE MECHANISMS TO IDENTIFY THE MENAS
Complications are derived if the minority of age cannot be established safely. The foreigner and borders brigade obtains the complete review (decadactillary and photographic), consults the RMENA and communicates the situation to the Fiscal Ministry, which is the competent authority to authorize medical evidence of age determination. Then a Foreign identity number (NIE) to the child once registered.
“It is the first link in a coordinated chain of actions in which the minors protection services, the Fiscal Ministry and the Government Delegations/Subdelegations, always under the governing principle of the protection and the best interest of the minor participate,” police sources emphasize to La Razón.
If this protocol has been outdated over time, the general legal framework is even older. The regulations of these minors go back to the Organic Law 4/2000about rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain. “It will be the prosecutor who orders the completion of the necessary evidence to determine the age,” says the regulations.
Once the age minority has been confirmed, the young man is made available to the protection services of the corresponding autonomous community. However, any procedure, such as repatriation, must be guided by the “Principle of Higher Interest of the Minor”it requires reports of the protection services and the Fiscal Ministry, and the hearing of the minor himself if he had sufficient judgment.
This regulation was developed a decade later in Royal Decree 557/2011. The text establishes that the “Residence authorization” The minor is granted for a 90 -day period since its disposal of protection services, its repatriation has not been possible. A Registration of unaccompanied foreign minors (Rmena)located in the General Directorate of the Police and coordinated by the State Attorney General’s Office. Its purpose is exclusively the identification, location and protection of the minor.
Government lack of action
When asked about this aspect, the Jupol union recognizes that there is a “Total lack of action” of the government. An absence of update that no longer responds to “social reality or the remains of security” facing Spain today.
“It is paradoxical that the Executive Vanaglorie publicly of his supposed concern about the situation of the Menas and the need to guarantee their protection, when in reality he has not approved a single new protocol or reviewed the existing instructions. It is, in short, an empty content speech that has not translated into real measures or work tools for agents that face this problem on the front line, “they regret.
This circumstance generates legal insecurity in the actions of the national police and also increases the vulnerability of the minors themselves and the general citizenship. This union has long claiming the Law of the minor that it has become obsolete and that the signature of automatic readmission agreements with the countries of origin and transit of irregular immigration is promoted.