RABAT, 21 September 2005 — Moroccan authorities have detained 201 Moroccans trying to illegally cross to Europe via Spain on three rickety boats, state news agency MAP reported yesterday, quoting a Royal Navy statement. The arrests were made on Monday near northern Al-Hoceima town, 445 km from Rabat, it added.
The arrest brought to about 300 the number of would-be migrants stopped by Moroccan police and navy units in the last three days, including 90 in the northern Nador town, MAP said. Many of the 90 arrestees were from sub-Saharan and Asian countries, it said. The European Commission estimates that half a million illegal immigrants flock to the prosperous European Union each year in search for a better life.
Meanwhile, about 30 Western Sahara prisoners who have been on hunger strike for nearly six weeks will be transferred from Morocco to a jail in their own territory where they will face trial, Moroccan Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa said in an interview published yester. Bouzoubaa told the daily Aujourd’hui Le Maroc the prisoners would be moved from Casablanca in northern Morocco and Ait Melloul in the south to be grouped in the main Western Sahara town of Laayoune and put on trial.
