Rabat – Undocumented migration continues to stymie Morocco and European countries. Morocco y has launched a new measure to fight migration “mafia” networks.
Migration took an important part in Thursday’s press conference held after the weekly government council.
During the press conference, the government’s spokesperson, Mustapha El Khalfi, discussed the need to increase efforts to fight undocumented migration.
In a statement to the press, El Khalfi said that Morocco is firm against human trafficking networks.
El Khalfi said, “Morocco has taken another step of transferring migrants to other cities, and this is not a deportation operation outside the national territory.”
El Khalfi also emphasized that throughout the years, Morocco launched several regularization operations to integrate migrants into Moroccan society and offer them the basic rights of health, housing, and education.
The official’s statement came after Spain and Morocco decided to reactivate an agreement they signed in 1992, which allows Spain to deport migrants to the transit country.
The agreement came in response to the surge of undocumented migration through the Moroccan border with the Spanish enclave, Ceuta.
The spokesperson estimated the number of foiled undocumented migration attempts at 65,000 in 2017.
El Khalfi said that the issue has increased in recent years, especially since 2016.
The official mentioned that two-thirds of failed attempts are from migrants of sub-Saharan countries, recalling Morocco’s migration policy that King Mohammed VI outlined in his message addressed to the 30th African Union Summit on January 30.
To manage migration, the King proposed the creation of an African Migration Observatory, “whose terms of reference would be the triad ‘Understand, Anticipate, Act.’”
The mission of the observatory would be the exchange of information between African countries to promote management of migration flows.
The King also expressed concerns, saying: “How many more migration-related tragedies do we still have to witness before our societies change the way they perceive migration?”
El Khalfi also pinpointed Moroccan-European partnerships to tackle migration issues.
“Morocco and the European partners continue the dialogue and hold regular meetings.”
El Khalfi also discussed the migration of Moroccan youth to Libya and other countries in attempts to cross the Mediterranean to reach the Eldorado.
“The sectors and services concerned have followed the subject in the past and have taken measures and still follow this question in the context of the communication with the countries concerned,” said El Khalfi.
Dozens of Moroccans were stranded in Libyan detention centers. Moroccan authorities have repatriated hundreds of Moroccans in several operations after videos circulating on social media featured them in “unbearable” conditions.
