Spain: Algerians smuggle kids for better social care

Spain: Algerians smuggle kids for better social care

Via AFP:
Algerian parents are risking the lives of their children by sending them to Europe aboard unsafe craft to take advantage of better social care facilities, a senior official said Monday.

"It is totally deplorable," the junior foreign minister responsible for Algerians abroad, Halim Benatallah, told Channel III radio, indicating that the same thing was happening in neighbouring countries.

The youngsters are dispatched as illegal immigrants to European Union countries, with Spain the favourite destination, he said.

Once they arrive, they are looked after by associations comprising Algerian women, Benatallah said. But when these women contact the families back home they are given the cold shoulder.

(source)