Child welfare

Demand for commission to investigate child sexual exploitation

Beatriz Camiña of Ciudadanos, who is demanding an investigation of the IMAS. | Miquel A. Cañellas

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma16/01/2020 16:31

The Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and El Pi at the Council of Majorca have demanded the creation of a commission to investigate procedures at the Majorca Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS). The three opposition parties want a thorough investigation of cases of sexual exploitation of minors. The IMAS has admitted that sixteen minors have been involved in prostitution while under its care and supervision.

Spokespeople from the three parties said on Thursday that it was intolerable that children in the care of the Council of Majorca should be exposed to sexual exploitation and be the victims of rape, as was the case with a girl on Christmas Eve. The commission, the parties insist, should examine the political management of the IMAS and be parallel to the criminal investigation that has been opened by the prosecution service.

Beatriz Camiña of Ciudadanos stated that minors should be protected as if they were within their own families. "We aren't looking for crimes to be investigated," she stressed, as this is up to the state security forces and the prosecution service. The commission is necessary because "the IMAS has decreed an information blackout".

The El Pi councillor Antoni Amengual insisted that there be a check on IMAS procedures and accused the IMAS of having permitted the repeated rape of a child in its care.