RABAT, March 9, 2012 (AFP)
Host countries no longer have the capacity to take in new immigrants and France is determined to fight clandestine immigration, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Friday in Morocco.
“Host countries are no longer capable of integrating new arrivals on their soil. We shall fight clandestine immigration in France and rely on the cooperation of Morocco in this respect,” Juppe told a joint press conference in Rabat with his Moroccan counterpart Saad Eddine Othmani.
“Clandestine immigration is unacceptable (…). Each year we welcome 180,000 legal immigrants. But today, we have great difficulty in integrating them,” added Juppe, who began an official visit to the north African country on Thursday.
Concerning Moroccan students, Juppe said that they constituted “the largest foreign student body in France, with more than 30,000 students.”
France requires visas for Moroccans wishing to visit the country, while French people can enter Morocco with a simple passport. President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that there are too many immigrants in France as he campaigned to win a new term in office at elections next month.
