The Catalonia region police spokesman said: “The National Police has detected a fraud involving a sophisticated modus operandi in the system of unaccompanied foreign minors in the province of Tarragona.”
The scheme amounted to a “systemic pattern of deliberate abandonment of children by their own parents in order to exploit the state’s welfare and guardianship resources”, the police outlined.
The spokesman said: “The investigation, which began in November 2023, has uncovered how families bring their underage children to Spain on single or multiple-entry C-type tourist visas, obtained despite the strict financial solvency requirements.”
The spokesman said that as part of the scheme, minors are “intentionally abandoned” outside police stations, juvenile centres and other public institutions, instructed by their parents to “declare themselves to be in a situation of neglect” in order to gain admittance.
“The main objective is for public institutions to assume the costs of maintenance, education and health, while facilitating the path to future family reunification and the obtaining of residence permits for the minors,” the spokesman said.