Father arrested after trying to abandon young son in Tenerife
A man has been arrested in Tenerife after allegedly attempting to leave his young son on the island and escape to the Spanish mainland, in a case the National Police describe as a serious act of child abandonment.
The investigation began when a child with no documents walked into a police station, accompanied by two men who claimed they had found him alone at a bus stop. The boy told officers he had arrived in Tenerife by patera, a route commonly used by unaccompanied migrant children. But his story quickly fell apart.
Police checks revealed the child had not arrived by sea at all. Instead, he had landed legally at the beginning of October on a commercial flight from Casablanca, travelling with a valid passport, a Schengen visa (short-stay visa), and, crucially, his father. Faced with the evidence, the boy later confirmed the truth.
According to investigators, the father’s plan was simple and callous: abandon the child in Tenerife so he could be taken into care as an unaccompanied minor, while he boarded a flight to Seville and left him behind. Officers believe the two men who brought the child to the station were cooperating in the plan, helping present the boy as a migrant found alone.
Police launched an urgent operation and caught the father at Tenerife South Airport as he attempted to board the flight. The two men involved were also at the terminal at the time of the arrest.
The suspect has now appeared before a judge and is facing charges of child abandonment for allegedly leaving his son in a situation of complete vulnerability on Spanish territory.
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