The mother of the six year old boy left alone in a Córdoba apartment for two weeks while she returned to Morocco has been detained by the National Police.
Thirty-five year old Latifa El Barrahi returned to Córdoba after someone informed her that her son had been taken into care by the authorities after he was found in the family apartment. She said that she had left the boy in the care of a neighbour as he did not wish to accompany her on her trip to Morocco and was threatening legal action to have the boy returned to her.
She has been detained while the court decides if this is a case of ‘abandonment’.
It transpires that in 2006, a similar situation occurred in which Latifa El Barrahi left both of her children alone for a long period. On that occasion, the Junta de Andalucía took both children into care and even began pre-adoption proceedings. However, a judge ruled that the children should be returned to their biological mother.