The United Nations has stepped in to address the concerning case of a Senegalese teenager being held in an adult prison in the Canary Islands, despite possessing documentation indicating he is a minor. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged Spanish authorities to uphold the teenager’s rights and treat him as a child, given the uncertainty surrounding his age.
The case centers around an individual identified as B.C., who was accused of piloting a migrant boat to the Canary Islands and faces charges related to facilitating irregular immigration. Since December 21, 2023, the Senegalese national, who has a birth certificate stating he is 17 years old, has been detained in an adult prison on Gran Canaria island.
Spanish authorities, relying on medical age assessment tests conducted in mid-February, concluded that B.C. was likely around 18 years old, leading to his placement in the adult facility. However, the UN committee has emphasized that when a person’s age is uncertain, they must be given the benefit of the doubt and treated as a minor, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This is not the first time the UN has called out Spain for denying minor status to young migrants reaching the Canary Islands. In a separate case last month, the committee intervened on behalf of a 14-year-old boy from Gambia who was living on the streets in Madrid and denied access to state support for minors, despite providing a passport photo and birth certificate proving his age.
The UN’s notice, obtained by the news agency EFE, states that Spanish authorities failed to accord B.C. his rights under the international Convention on the Rights of the Child by detaining him in an adult prison based on the disputed age assessment.
B.C.’s fate now rests with a court in Las Palmas, which will decide whether to recognize the age on his birth certificate or the age determined by the medical examiners. His lawyers argue that the UN resolution should sway the court to order the teenager’s immediate release and transfer to the care of child protection services in Las Palmas.
The case has once again brought into focus the contentious practice of age assessment tests for young migrants, which human rights advocates have long criticized as unreliable and potentially violating the rights of minors. As the UN intervention highlights, the welfare and legal protections afforded to children must be upheld, even in cases of uncertainty surrounding their age.