Eleven people have been arrested in Lanzarote, Gran Canarian and Madrid as part of Operation Triton, a police operation investigating the trafficking of children who arrived on the Canaries on pateras (small boats).
The investigation was launched after the disappearance of thirteen youngsters, mostly girls, from a care centre in Arrecife. In May this year, a Mauritanian man was arrested at Lanzarote Airport accompanying three of the migrant children and attempting to board a plane to Madrid with false documentation.
The aim of the trafficking ring appears to have been to take the children to France. Nine of the arrests were made on Lanzarote and four have been imprisoned on charges of belonging to a criminal organisation, falsification of documents, crimes against family rights and duties, and child pornography.
The legal duty of care for unaccompanied minors who arrive on the Canaries falls on the Canarian Government.
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