Rabat – Security services in Morocco’s Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra region aborted three irregular migration attempts to the Canary Islands on Saturday, October 16.
The region’s border police arrested 20, including 12 women and three children, who were attempting to take off the coast to the Canary Islands.
Five other would-be migrants were also arrested at the port of Laayoune.
In another operation, police in the province of Boujdour, arrested 10 people for irregular migration, including four women and a minor.
As part of a search operation near Akhfenir commune, in the Tarfaya province, the security services seized an inflatable boat with a motogodille.
Authorities in the Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra region have recently intensified efforts to abort migrants’ attempts to illegally reach the Canary Islands, leading to the arrest of several sub-Saharan and Moroccan migrants onboard inflatable boats.
The operations are part of the fight led by the various security services and local authorities against illegal immigration and human trafficking networks.
Since 2017, Morocco has prevented more than 14,000 unauthorized migration attempts, according to official data from the Moroccan government.
Morocco’s security services have also dismantled over 5,000 trafficking networks and rescued over 80,500 migrants at sea.
