To gain Spanish residency, foreign women are reportedly flying to Spain on tourist visas and abandoning their children, who later claim to be unaccompanied minor refugees in an effort to take advantage of Spain’s family reunification policy.
The change is aimed at reaching 15,000 young people in the country, both those still under the care of the state and the extutelados, those over the 18 who were once wards of the state.
Incentives driving the trend, which has been witnessed across Western Europe, include preferential treatment in the form of protection from deportation, increased social welfare benefits, and special rights in criminal cases.
