The Spanish National Police arrested a Moroccan couple living in the city of Móstoles, a municipality in near Madrid, for smuggling two Moroccan minors into Melilla using their children's passports. According to Spanish media, the couple is facing charges related to falsifying documents and exploiting the rights of migrants, while one of the smuggled minors, a 17-year-old girl, was arrested and placed under the care of Melilla's minor protection services. According to a spokesperson for the National Police in Melilla, the girl appeared in late July at the local police headquarters, claiming that she had arrived in the city by a small boat from the coast of the port. She was subsequently placed in the custody of the authorities responsible for the care of minors. However, investigators from the unit that combats irregular migration networks and document forgery uncovered inconsistencies in the girl's statements, prompting them to launch an intensive investigation. Investigations later showed that she had entered Melilla through the Beni Ansar border crossing using a fake passport. Police explained that the girl used a passport belonging to another child with the help of a woman—who was later arrested in Madrid—which allowed her to cross the border. The girl was subsequently arrested, and her case was referred to the Minors' Prosecution Office. Investigations showed that the arrested woman was traveling with her husband and their minor children between Melilla and Morocco frequently. On one of these trips, she smuggled the arrested girl using her daughter's passport. It was also found that she repeated the operation with another minor, using her son's passport in a similar operation.
