A Moroccan university professor has been arrested in Andalucia after allegedly abandoning his two children in a bid to get them taken into care.

Police claim the man first travelled with the minors to Bilbao, then told them how to present themselves as abandoned so they would be placed under state protection.

He then returned to Morocco, leaving them behind.

The children were taken in by social services in the Basque Country and later moved to protection centres in Gipuzkoa.

There, they told officers the plan had been arranged in advance with their father, who knew how the system worked.

The case is part of Operation Zaugarria, with police warning this is an increasingly detected tactic: parents bringing children into Spain only to leave them so the state assumes responsibility.

The investigation took a turn when officers discovered the father had re-entered Spain and was in Algeciras, a key crossing point between Europe and North Africa.

He was called in by police on March 12 and later arrested in San Sebastian on suspicion of child abandonment.

Despite the arrest, the case ended in an unexpected way. After police procedures, the father said he wanted to take responsibility for his children.

The family was reunited, and the minors left care to go with him back to Morocco.

Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.