Can you imagine a father who wants to abandon his son to understand what a “burden” is? Or a pregnant woman who arrives in Spain with the sole purpose of giving birth and giving her baby up for adoption? Well, stop imagining it.
This is the harsh reality that technicians at Child Protection Service. Workers who live daily with stories of absolutely unthinkable helplessness and who reveal the emotional detachment to which a part of today’s society is exposed.
The official data managed by the Regional Administration are conclusive. Currently there are 934 minors under guardianship in the province of Malagaincluding nearly 500 in foster care. “There have never been so many in history,” notes the Delegate of Social Inclusion, Youth, Families and Equality of Malaga, Ruth Sarabiaa statement confirmed by Jaime Aguilera, head of the Minor Protection Service, who recalls that the previous peak occurred in 2018, coinciding with a massive arrival of MENAS (Unaccompanied Foreign Minors) in the province.
One of the causes of the increase in social actions observed in recent years has its origins in the dramatic consequences that the Covid pandemic has had on the mental health of many parentspreventing them from having a real capacity to respond to the needs of their children.
“THE protection of the boy or girl“They cannot be abandoned or mistreated,” the delegate emphasizes, stressing that this is the line to follow in the entire process that takes place from the moment an episode of this type is detected until the decision is made to assume guardianship.
The impact of Covid has not only been felt by parents, but also by minors, generating in them “a aggression that has worsened“. “And increasingly at younger ages; there are parents who say they can’t take it anymore, that they hit them,” adds Sarabia, who remembers the post-pandemic episodes of young people aged 12 to 16 who remained “isolated” and who, for years, refused to go to school.
“What they come to say is that they can’t, that they are too busy with work; It’s like having a child is a burden instead of a child.; “The concept of son as a burden has been changed.”
What happens when the system decides to take a minor away from parents who are addicted to drugs or unable to provide for them, for example? It is normal to go directly to the child’s closest family, whether it is an uncle, an aunt, a grandmother… But even this reality is changing, because many people are giving up on it. obligation.
family detachment
“We see a decrease in the number of extended families (who are the closest) who assume the commitment to stay with the minors,” confirms the delegate. The figures speak for themselves, to the point that, according to Aguilera, there are almost as many minors with other families, “without any blood or family ties,” like theirs. “Years ago, extended families that took in minors could represent 80% of the total; now they are distributed almost between 50 and 50,” he emphasizes.
And why does this happen? “Because everyone goes to their ball“Because we don’t want problems,” says Sarabia, who points out that what happens to minors is similar to what happens to elderly people, “who were previously welcomed into the family home instead of going to a residence.”
This reality is also reflected in memory of the Andalusian Public Prosecutor’s Office. It highlights the high occupancy rate of the protection centres in Malaga, “both due to an increase in declarations of helplessness and a significant decrease in foster families, or the resignations of guardians to continue being welcomed when the minors reach adolescence and their behaviour is more rebellious. “In Malaga, for the first time in years, the number of foreign host families exceeds that of extended families,” confirms the document.
This growing feeling of uprooting and emotional separation is reflected in the concrete cases of parents who arrive saying that “they cannot take care of their children, that from Monday to Friday they have managed to place them in a homeschool, but that on the weekends they have to stay with them and who do not see themselves trainedthat if they have bad behavior…”
“What they come to say is that they can’t, that they are too busy with work; It’s like having a child is a burden instead of a child.“The concept of the son as a burden has been changed, which does not allow him to do what he wants,” Sarabia insists.
In this context, the value of other people’s families increases exponentially. Currently, the Regional Administration has about 60 families, but the needs are much greater. “Need 60 more” comments the delegate.
This is why an awareness campaign has been launched. The need is, if possible, greater, due to the increase in the number of foreign minors requiring family placement. They are around 200 minors of up to 32 different nationalities.
What is striking in this case is that the majority of them are no longer MENAS (there are currently around forty), but boys and girls from families of Latin American, Finnish, Ukrainian and English origin…And, in many cases, stem from problems with alcohol or drug use.
