Child migrants face abuse in Spanish centres-HRW

MADRID, July 26 (Reuters) Hundreds of African children are at risk of violence and even sexual abuse in Spanish government migrant detention centres in the Canary Islands, Human Rights Watch said in a report today.

Children at the four centres established to cope with a surge in illegal migration to the Canaries last year complained of beatings by staff and of a lack of protection from violence by peers, the human rights lobby group said in a report which the island government said lacked proof.

''These children should be protected by the Spanish authorities, not left to suffer beatings and abuse,'' said Simone Troller, Europe children's rights researcher for Human Rights Watch, in a news release, ''The Canary Islands government should close these centres and arrange better care for the children.'' More than 5,000 Africans have arrived so far this year in the Canaries after surviving dangerous sea journeys for hundreds of miles in wooden boats. Hoping for work in Europe, they are locked in detention centres prior to repatriation.

At the centres for children, inmates are particularly vulnerable, and lack access to education or recreation. At one centre, some children said a staff member had sexually harassed them and others complained of violence, Human Rights Watch said.

''One boy got into trouble with (a staff member). That day the (staff member) took him to the shower and beat him up. There was blood in the boy's mouth and his clothes were full of blood,'' said a 17-year-old boy at the La Esperanza centre, according to Human Rights Watch.

Another boy said: ''When we tell them that we are hungry they tell us that we were starving in Senegal and should be happy to be given food at all.'' But the Canary Islands' regional government said it had initiated an internal investigation in February after Human Rights Watch first told it of the abuses described in the report only presented today and found no evidence for them.

''The Canary Islands asked for more detailed information, but the organisation (Human Rights Watch) refused to provide it,'' the islands' government said.

It added that it also wants to close down the centres and said the national Spanish government had failed to meet a commitment to transfer more of the children to the mainland.

Reuters PD RS1828